Obama’s Foreign Policy Failure

The Publius Forum ^ | January 2, 2010 | Dan Scott

[dscott8186]

How much puzzling did President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton do when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran rebuffed them? Remember how liberal Democrats claimed the world hated the US because of President Bush and then tossed up the canard that 911 was the result of Bush’s power projection? Barely eight months in office President Bush hadn’t even visited Israel yet by September 2001 let alone stirred the hornet’s nest in the Middle East. He didn’t visit Israel until 2008; in fact prior to his election in 2000 there were questions whether he would be pro-Israel at all. Iran was just a footnote in the long line of nettlesome issues yet to raise its ugly head. After eight years of Clinton foreign policy failures, Rwanda, Darfur, Somalia and liberal assertions of women’s rights to the UN by the year 2000, the world, namely the Muslim world hated the US to the point extremists attacked US overseas targets some ten times. The 911 event was conceived, planned, financed and trained for under President Clinton’s watch and then executed eight months later after President Bush took office. So what did President Clinton do over eight years to raise the ire of the Muslim world? To the point a former ally in Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden attacked us?

[BelegStrongbow]

What a fascinatingly creative way of analyzing the terror problem. The article basically says that the difference between the Bush approach and the Obama attempt is that the former simply empowered the local authorities and protected them while they found their footing. The authorities then established a liberal state based in Muslim culture. Obama now tries not only to do that but also to convert the local culture into Western Feminism, which is the one element of Wester culture guaranteed to conflict with Muslim culture. The result is blowback rather than reduction in tension and crisis.

I wonder if anyone in government will have these thoughts?

[John-Irish]

Not at all. They’re a bunch of babes in the woods. As is becoming clear , Obama hasn’t the discipline to follow through on anything. He spouts his flowery bs, leaves things up to others(who have the same fecklessness he does) and things go south. He’s lazy, pure and simple and Hillary’s missing in action. There is a storm on the horizon and we will reap the whirlwind.

[jwparkerjr]

Although he’s correct on the overall effect of how they feel about us, IMHO, it’s just one of the gripes they have with us. Underlying all of the hostility is simply the fact we’re not Muslims! Their holy writings demand they convert all the world to Islam, and failing in that to kill as many of the ‘infidels’ as possible.

If just so happens that our decadence really stands out and is quite easy to point to by the Mullahs. But virtually every one of the terrorists who kill themselves and others turns out to have spent the last few days or weeks of his life in bars and strip clubs. If it was the decadence they hate they would hardly immerse themselves in it on the eve of facing Allah.

It’s just so hard for some people to get their mind around the idea that there are those who will kill you because their holy men tell them to, and that by so doing they get a “Go To Paradise Free” card.

Their goal is to bring all of the Earth under the rule of Islam and they are more willing to die for that goal than we are to offend someone in the name of denying them success.

[vimto]

And that just about sums it up, well said!

[dscott8186]

Yes you are correct in that the overall goal of jihad is to convert the West and everyone by force to Islam. However, the reason in the Muslim mind to convert the infidel is to bring them into subjection to God, i.e. a moral center. The religious answer to the world’s problems (decadence, divorce, general godlessness of liberalism) is conversion, whether you be a Christian or Muslim. The Muslims persuade by force as necessary, whereas Christians persuade by the appeal of forgiveness. Muslims handle forgiveness of wrong acts differently via Ramadan versus Christians and as such don’t get hung up on the degree of their wrong acts. This is why they have no problem with going to strip clubs, etc.

The Mullahs have found a potent rallying point in the populist slogan of moral decadence of the West. Hence they call the US, the Great Satan and Israel, the little Satan. This orginated with the Mullahs of Iran in their denounciation of the Shah and they used this populist slogan to energize their followers. Promising Heaven to any who would literally die for doing “God’s Work.” Kill the evil doers doing God’s work and in the process guarantee your place in line at the pearly gates. Think of the appeal to those who have doubt about their place in line! This is why they find an endless supply of martyrs, many in the Muslim world have personal doubt of their standing before God. Ironic isn’t it?