‘A New Beginning”: That’s what President Obama called his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo back in June 2009.
Speaking at al-Azhar University, an ancient seat of Muslim scholarship, Obama called for a fresh start “based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition.
“There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other; to learn from each other; to respect one another; and to seek common ground.”
How’s that “new beginning” working out, Mr. President?
In two coordinated, planned attacks on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Tuesday — most likely by al Qaeda — a howling, vengeful, armed Islamic mob assaulted our embassy in Cairo, ripped down and burned our flag.
Ostensibly, they were protesting an obscure short film that supposedly “insulted” Islam’s prophet Mohammad. But they gave the game away when they shouted, “Obama, Obama, there are still a billion Osamas,” and ran up the al Qaeda banner.
Even worse, in Benghazi, Libya, our consulate was incinerated and at least four Americans killed, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
The rioting has now spread to Yemen and Tunisia, while Obama has told Telemundo that Egypt is no longer a US ally.
So much for hope and change.
In fact, Obama’s “Muslim outreach” was an embrace of entrenched rulers. Both human rights and the Bush “democracy agenda” were out the window — this was going to be a tyrant-appeasing, State Department-compliant, “stable” foreign policy on the model of the first President George Bush.
He promised a rush to the exits in Iraq (even faster than the pullout already negotiated by the Bushies) and put the supposed center of all Mideast woes, the Israel-Palestine issue, at the top of his to-do list.
Oh, and offered an “open hand” to the mullahs in Iran. We’d negotiate them into shutting down their nuclear-weapons program, with some assistance from the United Nations, using the stick of sanctions ameliorated by the carrot of appeasement.
So when vast numbers of Iranians took to the streets that summer to protest a stolen election — the greatest threat since its 1979 founding to a regime that has always declared its implacable enmity to us — the administration stood by. It said nothing as long as possible, then waved a desultory finger as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bully boys opened fire on their own young people.
After all, we needed Tehran to get back to the negotiating table and make the striped-pants set happy. Three years later, we’re still there — and the mullahs are getting very close to the bomb.
The story was little different, come the Arab Spring.
What began in Tunisia with an act of self-immolation by a street vendor fed up with official corruption in December 2010 quickly turned into revolution against entrenched Arab dictators, mostly US allies.
The administration was caught flat-footed — most especially in Egypt, where we at first supported our longtime ally, Hosni Mubarak, then dropped him.
Our Egypt strategy then was to hope their military (handsomely subsidized by the US taxpayer) could keep a share of power. Now that a Muslim Brotherhood veteran has won the presidency and purged the military, we’re hoping he’ll prove a “moderate” Brother. Good luck with that.
At least when the revolt broke out in Libya, we were willing to lead the British and French “from behind” in helping overthrow the odious Col. Khadafy. Maybe the West showing some cojones there was a factor in the fact that the Islamists didn’t win control of that new government.
On the other hand, Libya’s new rulers were too weak to prevent the al Qaeda operation in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Stevens and the others.
And we’re firmly on the sidelines in Syria’s civil war, even as Islamists increasingly take control of the revolt against bloody Bashar Assad. Whoever wins won’t be our pal.
Bottom line: Rather than placating the “Islamic world” with the conciliatory Cairo speech and “realistic” policies, this administration has unleashed chaos — then stood by as Islamists work to control the newly “free” nations and move closer to their dream of a universal caliphate.
Obama should know all this. Of all presidents, he should have a unique insight into religious and cultural Islam.
But he has other priorities. So, instead of action after the murder of our diplomats, we got a statement from the president that “strongly condemned the outrageous attack.” Then he headed off to Las Vegas, for more campaigning.
First things first.