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Why Americans of Mideast Descent Have Shifted to Romney
Tea Party Tribune ^ | 2012-11-03 18:17:03 | Dr. Walid Phares

Posted on 11/03/2012 9:36:27 PM PDT by tselatysr

By Dr Walid Phares

When Senator Barack Obama ran for office in 2008, most Americans of Arabic and Middle Eastern origin supported him. Mobilized as were many Americans for "change" on the one hand, these communities were also submitted to an impressive campaign by Islamist-leaning organizations and supporters of Arab regimes, on the other hand, all opposed to the incumbent's foreign policy then. They used President Bush's endorsement of Arizona Senate Republican John McCain to frame Obama's opponent as anti-Arab and border Islamophobe. To them, Obama was squaring off with a candidate who supported the so-called "Bush wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, many young people of Iranian and Arab descent viewed Barack Obama as a breaker of US political taboos. "If an African-American can become a President" they thought, "so can we." The sky was the limit. McCain, however, received the support of most Lebanese-Americans who had watched their mother country fall into the hands of Hezbollah that same year. Lebanon notwithstanding, most in the global Arab and Middle Eastern community supported Obama. Four years later, the political landscape has changed dramatically among Arab and Mideast groups.

While most of the best-funded lobby and political organizations backing the Muslim Brotherhood or the Iranian regime in the Greater Middle East and North Africa remain in the Obama camp, a surge in the other direction has provoked a massive change in Mideast American politics. Although public figures for the pro-Obama agenda in these communities have a higher profile in the mainstream media, a ground swell has been moving away from the President since his first year in office. Here's how:

In June 2009, millions of Iranian youth demonstrated in the streets of Tehran against the Ayatollahs, calling for freedom. President Obama, who was looking to end tensions between the US and Iran by cutting a deal with the Iranian regime, abandoned the demonstrators to be crushed by the Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The President's shocking attitude sent a message to Iranian Americans, many of whom have since moved away from the President.

That year, Obama officials stated that the Administration was seeking to engage "moderates within Hezbollah," a US-designated terrorist organization that was under indictment in the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri. Lebanese American rejection of Obama's policy on Lebanon increased their rejection of the President's bid for reelection.

When the Arab Spring erupted in the streets of Cairo in January 2011, the Obama Administration resisted engaging the youth, Facebook activists, bloggers, women and minorities in Tahrir Square. It was only after the Muslim Brotherhood entered the fray of the protests that Washington pressured President Mubarak to resign. Afterward, the Obama Administration helped the Brotherhood sway the military, and then gradually abandoned the liberals and Copts to the domination of the Islamists. This policy didn't go unnoticed at home. Egyptian-American liberals and the large Coptic community shifted their support away from Obama.

Syria's descent into bloodshed also had an effect on voters in America. Syrian Americans waited patiently for the Obama Administration to move swiftly in March 2011 in response to Assad's murderous crushing of the initial peaceful demonstrations. One year later the Assad regime had leveled most Syrian cities and killed thirty-thousand civilians. Furthermore, the logistical bridge from Iraq into Syria facilitated Hezbollah's support to the dictator's efforts to break up the uprising. Worse yet, the jihadists have penetrated the insurgency. Most Syrian Americans are frustrated with the Obama administration's reluctance to save the people of their mother land.

In 2011 South Sudan voted for self-determination and obtained independence in July. But Khartoum's regime relentlessly pounded the new African republic with air bombardment and invaded one of its oil rich provinces. Furthermore, Bashir troops continued their suppression of Northern Sudan's Black minorities, the Nubians, Bejas and Darfurians. Sudanese Americans hoped to see the first African American President come to their rescue and take Bashir to The Hague. Instead Washington has been reinstating Sudan's dictator who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court. The community has since been very angry about Obama's Sudan policy.

Chaldeans and Assyrian Americans who originate from Mesopotamia didn't appreciate the abandonment of Iraqi Christians under an Iranian-dominated Baghdad, and the return of al Qaeda terrorists. Kurdish Americans resented the administration's lack of commitment to the survival of Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Many Arab American women were disappointed with the way the Obama administration's Islamist partners' treatment of women in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. The list is long, but a new majority of Middle East Americans, including many Arab Americans feel the Obama Administration has offered up the region to the Muslim Brotherhood and, in eventually, to the Iranian regime. Even Palestinian Americans aren't satisfied with the Obama administration's inattention to events in the region.

Governor Mitt Romney has declared he will partner with the Iranian people against the Mullahs' regime. Iranian Americans are on board with his approach. He wants to disarm Hezbollah, as do most Lebanese Americans. Romney was clear about his support for the Syrian opposition, as Syrian Americans demanded; he opposes the jihadists as moderate Egyptians, Tunisian and Sudanese wish to see happening. He unapologetically backs minorities from Iraq to North Africa. Romney not only wants to see women -the single largest majority in the Arab world- getting jobs, but also freedom. The alternative agenda to Obama's is clear, more freedom to the peoples of the region.

Hence, putting the Islamist and Pan-Arabist lobbies aside, it seems that a majority of Americans of Mideast and Arab descent, Christians and Muslim alike, find themselves in Mitt Romney's camp. We anticipate that millions of them will vote for him on November 6, particularly in swing states such as Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.

*****

Dr Walid Phares is a senior advisor on Foreign Policy and National Security for Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney and the author of The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East.

Article shared using the Free Republish tool on Tea Party Tribune.


TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012elections; foreignpolicy; middleeast; mittromney
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To: Tailgunner Joe
I have to hand it to them. Sunni propaganda is pretty creative, and the oil-rich gulf emirates obviously have a lot of money available to pay to the people who gin up these stories. Here's a link to Sunni propaganda about Israeli atrocities, complete with pictures of injured and maimed babies.
21 posted on 11/03/2012 10:58:08 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Sounds like the Shiites say that Alawites are Shiite muslims.

Sounds like Assad paid off a key Shiite cleric to say that Alawites, who don't attend mosque, and say Ali (not AllaH) is their god, are Shiite Muslims. Unfortunately for Alawites, this pro forma statement doesn't seem to have percolated down to the popular level, where Alawites are considered apostates, to be killed on sight.

22 posted on 11/03/2012 11:01:29 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

Anybody who rapes women and murders children deserves to die.


23 posted on 11/03/2012 11:01:40 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Zhang Fei

You sound like an Iranian propagandist from presstv.ir.


24 posted on 11/03/2012 11:03:49 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Anybody who rapes women and murders children deserves to die.

Then the Sunnis in Syria deserve to die.

25 posted on 11/03/2012 11:04:41 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

Innocent women and children don’t deserve to be raped and murdered by Assad’s savage animal thugs.


26 posted on 11/03/2012 11:07:35 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
You sound like an Iranian propagandist from presstv.ir.

You sound like a misguided neo-conservative who thinks inside every foreigner is an American trying to get out. 2/3 of Egypt voted for the Islamist parties. Tunisia has an Islamist leader. Ultimately, an Alawite-run Syria is no threat to us because of the continuing infighting endemic to minority rule, but a Sunni Islamist Syria will pose serious challenges.

As to Iran, I think we should impose a no-fly zone in Iran, destroy its air force and air defenses and flatten its nuclear facilities. That was how we ended Saddam's nuclear program, and that success shows the way forward. I don't understand all of the BS continually spouted by the talking heads about how Iran's nuclear program is indestructible.

27 posted on 11/03/2012 11:15:35 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Innocent women and children don’t deserve to be raped and murdered by Assad’s savage animal thugs.

But innocent non-Sunni women and children deserve to be slaughtered by the Sunni rebels? What about the innocent American men, women and children who will be targeted right here at home once the Sunni rebels establish a Taliban-style Islamist regime in Syria? We've lived with an Alawite regime in Syria for decades without a single Alawite terrorist attack here, whereas Sunnis have launched dozens (successful and thwarted) of terrorist attacks against us with the 1993 and 2001 WTC and Fort Hood attacks being the most well-known.

28 posted on 11/03/2012 11:20:23 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

I don’t really care about what kind of muslim Assad is, it is the fact that he is a genocidal socialist dictator guilty of killing US soldiers in Iraq that really bothers me.


29 posted on 11/03/2012 11:21:15 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Zhang Fei

Assad has harbored many Sunni terrorist organizations including al-qaeda. He is only getting what he deserves.


30 posted on 11/03/2012 11:29:13 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: tselatysr

A bit of sub racial resentment at play here

Anyone who can....usually....votes anti traditional white

Its a siren call these days


31 posted on 11/03/2012 11:30:54 PM PDT by wardaddy (my wife prays in the tanning bed....guess what region i live in...ya'll?)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
I don’t really care about what kind of muslim Assad is, it is the fact that he is a genocidal socialist dictator guilty of killing US soldiers in Iraq that really bothers me.

Alawites did not kill US soldiers. Sunnis did. A lot of the Sunni rebels fighting Assad now were involved in killing GI's. Heck - Iraqi Sunnis who attacked GI's are now in Syria trying to topple Assad. We told Assad to have his army fight Sunnis in order to prevent them from crossing over to Iraq to fight GI's. Given the difficulty he's having in suppressing the Sunni rebellion, it's pretty clear why he balked. (He probably figured we were cynically using that ploy to lure him into a domestic quagmire so as to topple him). Note that I'm no Assad sympathizer. Before 9/11 and the response to that event from Sunnis worldwide showed the unappeasable cruelty and ferocity of Sunni public opinion, I would have cheered this Sunni rebellion. Sunni Islam has finally shown its hand, and we are better off for knowing it, despite all the casualties we've sustained.

32 posted on 11/03/2012 11:32:11 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei

Assad let Sunnis terrorists hide in Syria and cross into Iraq to kill US soldiers. Now they are properly thanking him for supporting their anti-American jihad.


33 posted on 11/03/2012 11:39:23 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Assad has harbored many Sunni terrorist organizations including al-qaeda. He is only getting what he deserves.

Assad has never harbored al Qaeda terrorists. Besides, how much support can an apostate ruler really afford to offer al Qaeda, whose ideology is to kill infidels in the most gruesome ways? 40 years of Alawite rule and what you allege to be support for al Qaeda has yielded 0 terrorist attacks on American soil whereas less than 10 years of Sunni Islamist rule in Afghanistan yielded 1 attack on 9/11 that killed 3000 American, and dozens of attacks and plots since then.

34 posted on 11/03/2012 11:47:23 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei
The Syrian regime felt threatened and felt that it, too, might fall," Fares recalled. "So they had an agreement with al Qaeda to keep the road open to Iraq. The militants started coming from all over the world through Syria, under the eyes of the Syrian secret police, which are directly responsible for the killing of thousands of Iraqis in Iraq as well as Americans and coalition forces. "The secret police were encouraging enthusiastic young people in Syria to go for jihad in Iraq and join al Qaeda," Fares continued. "Bashar al-Assad and his security forces are directly responsible for the killing of thousands and thousands of Iraqis and coalition forces, because he gave al Qaeda everything it needed. He trained and provided shelter and he built safe havens for them to hide in." One of these "safe havens," Fares said, was the Syrian border village of al Sukariya, near the border city of Abu Kamal. In response to the accusations, a senior U.S. administration official said that Fares' claims about the Syrian government 's cooperation with al Qaeda during the war in Iraq are "broadly consistent with our understanding." "Since 2003, al-Assad allowed al Qaeda and associates to facilitate weapons, money and fighters to al Qaeda's Iraq-based affiliate, setting the conditions for those same elements to shift from Syria-based facilitation to active attacks -- this time focused against the al-Assad regime," the official said." - LINK

35 posted on 11/03/2012 11:59:50 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Assad let Sunnis terrorists hide in Syria and cross into Iraq to kill US soldiers. Now they are properly thanking him for supporting their anti-American jihad.

Actually, I'd say he made the right move* in not interfering with the Sunni jihadists crossing into Iraq - Uncle Sam's $1T investment in Iraq simultaneously drained the coffers of Sunni financiers of jihad and killed off the most motivated jihadis to the point that they were too few to topple Gaddafi without NATO support and will be crushed by Assad unless NATO intervenes. GWB said "Bring 'em on". I view Assad's war against the Sunni rebels as the continuation of the battle to decisively break the spirit of the Sunni holy warrior. As with the defeated Axis powers, Sunni holy warriors must not only be defeated, they must acknowledge that they have been defeated.

* The only move he could make, given the political constraints of being an infidel ruling a Sunni-majority country.

36 posted on 11/04/2012 12:01:15 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Sunni defectors will say anything to ingratiate themselves with the West. Sunnis say that Jews use blood of Muslim children (whom they ritually slaughter) to bake Matzohs.


37 posted on 11/04/2012 12:06:57 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: Zhang Fei
I guess from Assad's point of view, he did the right thing helping al-qaeda kill Americans.

Funny thing though I see things from my point of view, not his. Go figure.

38 posted on 11/04/2012 12:07:40 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Zhang Fei

Assad said the Jews “tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad.”


39 posted on 11/04/2012 12:11:35 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
I guess from Assad's point of view, he did the right thing helping al-qaeda kill Americans. Funny thing though I see things from my point of view, not his. Go figure.

He also gave Americans a chance to decisively defeat a generation's worth of Sunni holy warriors in Arabia. In retrospect, that is the one saving grace of the Iraqi campaign. We defeated them in a stand-up fight with everything they could throw at us, and no one can deny that. GI's slaughtered them until they were sick of dying and ran away in fear. Of course, Obama and the neo-con idiots have frittered that victory away by helping Islamist governments and al Qaida veterans take over in North Africa, but that's a subject for another day.

40 posted on 11/04/2012 12:17:23 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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