Accurate:
“Obama was naive to believe that one only needed to adopt a new tone and show more respect in order to dispel deep-seated reservations about the free world. In practice, the policies of the Obama administration in the region were not as naive as they may have seemed at times, and the Americans have always been much more involved in the Middle East than the passive Europeans. But Washington has provided the image of a distracted superpower in the process of decline to the societies there. This image of weakness is being exploited by Salafists and al-Qaida, who are active in North Africa from Somalia to Mali.”
“One thing is clear: If jihadists believe they can attack American installations and kill an ambassador on the anniversary of Sept. 11, then America’s deterrent power has declined considerably. For a superpower, it is not enough just to want to be loved. You have to scare the bad guys to keep them in check.”
Anyone who bows to Muslims is either beheaded by them or becomes their servant forever.
I will always recall the comment from an unknown Syrian interviewed while sitting in a coffee shop in Damascus after our special forces blitzkrieg rout of the Taliban from Kabul in 2002: "Obviously it is not a good idea to upset the Americans."
That is what the "Arab Street" thought then. Now they know we are indecisive and nothing to be afraid of.
———You have to scare the bad guys to keep them in check.”-—
Actually, to scare them you must actually kill them, lots and lots of them, with an odd wife and child thrown in here and there as collateral damage