[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Obama Steers Toward Endless War With Islam

[Bill Totten]

by Michael Scheuer

Antiwar.com (May 19 2009)


In just over 100 days, President Obama is on the verge of ensuring that
militant Islam's war on America will be waged for decades to come and
its forces will never suffer manpower or money shortages. How did he
accomplish so much in some little time? He simply behaved as all US
political leaders behave; that is, as an ignorant and arrogant
interventionist.

Let us take the ignorant part first. Since January 20, Obama and his
band of Israel-Firsters have shown the Muslim world - moderate,
conservative, radical, and fanatic - that George W. Bush was no one-off
fluke, that Democrats intend to wage war on Islam just like the
Republicans. How so? Well, look at Obama's decisions and actions. They
can only be explained by accepting that the new president is ignorant
of our Islamist foes, either by choice or because the ability to read
is not required to graduate at Harvard.

For thirteen years, Osama bin Laden, his lieutenants, their allies, and
numerous anti-Islamist commentators across the Middle East have
patiently, repeatedly, and explicitly explained to the bipartisan US
governing elite and its media and academic acolytes that the Islamists
attacking America do not give a tinker's damn about its lifestyle,
liberties, freedoms, or elections. Orally and in print, US leaders have
been told what motivates the Islamists' war on America is the US
government's foreign policies in the Muslim world. Foremost among these
are US support for Muslim tyrannies, the US military's presence in
Muslim lands, and unqualified US support for Israel.

And what have Obama and his advisers done with this excellent
intelligence about enemy motivation, which, by the way, comes straight
from the horse's mouth? Well, they clearly ignored it, and by deciding
to operate in an intelligence-free environment Obama has acted in a way
that will intensify and prolong the Islamists' war against the United
States. How so?

* On the tyranny front, Obama chose to go to Turkey for his first visit
to the Muslim world. That country is formally governed by an Islamic
party, but it is actually ruled by a thoroughly Westernized general
staff ready to pounce on and dismantle the Islamic regime if its gets
too religiously ambitious. Needless to say, Turkey is regarded by many
Muslims as having long ago sold its Islamic soul by joining the
"Christian" NATO alliance.
* Obama then proceeded to acknowledge America's oil vassalage to Saudi
Arabia when, on being introduced, he bowed to Saudi King Abdullah, the
master of the Saudi police state. The president also chose to speak his
first televised words to Muslims in an interview on al-Arabiya
television, the mouthpiece of the Saudi tyranny.
* Obama next said that he will go to Egypt to address Muslims in a
speech he promised during the presidential campaign. This visit will
show Obama prating about the glories of secular democracy and the
peacefulness of Islam while standing cheek-by-jowl with Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak, chief warden of the Muslim world's premier
police state.
* On the military side, Obama has announced plans to send 21,000 more US
troops to what Muslims call "the defiant land of jihad, Afghanistan".
The arrival of those troops - too few to win but enough to slow our
defeat - will be portrayed by al-Jazeera, the BBC, and especially the
Saudis' anti-American shills at al-Arabiya as a brutal re-invasion of
Afghanistan.
* Obama was silent while Israel invaded and wrecked Gaza last winter;
has appointed an IDF veteran as his chief of staff - think of the
espionage potential in that move; has watched the proliferation of
Israeli settlements; and has re-imposed sanctions on Syria and kept war
with Iran on the front burner. His Justice Department has also exempted
from prosecution Israel-First Americans and their agents in the
Congress.


Like former president Bush, then, Obama has kept himself ignorant of the
Islamists' motivation and is playing directly into their hands; indeed,
bin Laden, with all his road-building skills, could not pave a smoother
path to hell for America. In taking this tack, Obama also displays the
abiding arrogance that permeates our governing elite, an attitude that
causes them to believe that both Muslims and Americans are stupid. If
you doubt this, listen to the sophomoric words of White House Press
Secretary Robert Gibbs as he tries to make sure that no one looks
behind the curtain of Mubarak's tyranny when Obama speaks in Egypt:

"[T]his isn't a speech to leaders. This is a speech to many, many people
and a continuing effort by this president and this White House to
demonstrate how we can work together to ensure the safety and security
and the future well-being through hope and opportunity of the children
of this country and of the Muslim world."

Well, Mr Gibbs, as one of Obama's predecessors once said, you can't fool
all of the people all of the time. Elected on a pledge to end Bush's
wars, Obama has instead ensured their extension by actions sure to
further inflame Islamists and, indeed, most Muslims governed by royal,
military, or elected-for-life tyrants. As it becomes clear that Obama's
administration is miring America deeper in a war with Islam that
benefits only Israel, he and his advisers will repeat the mantra long
intoned by Israeli politicians: "We tried our best to better relations
with Islam, but we were rebuffed and so now Americans must soldier on
in endless wars". This will be a lie. Obama may use softer rhetoric,
but he is loyal to the status quo interventionism Washington practices
no matter which party holds power.

The only redeeming aspect of Obama's 100-plus-day foreign-policy debacle
is that his deceit is about played out. He will fool no Muslims. His
courting of Westernized Turkish generals, bowing to King Abdullah, and
joining Mubarak in a cheer for freedom will tell Muslims all they need
to know about US intentions in their region. Likewise, Obama's
expanding war in Afghanistan and his kowtowing to Israel and American
Israel-Firsters will give the lie to his claim that Washington is now
an honest broker in the Middle East.

Americans will be slower off the mark than Muslims, but they will soon
see that Democrats share the Republicans' eagerness to wage unnecessary
wars at the cost of their children and taxes. The inevitable need for
more troops and money to stave off US defeat in Afghanistan, the
increased Islamist attacks on US interests at home and abroad, and -
most of all - the unraveling of "success" in Iraq (which, in turn, will
prevent a US withdrawal that would be lethal to Israel) will be seen by
Americans for what they are: the price of an ignorant, arrogant
interventionism that is ruining not only America's economy and domestic
cohesion, but their kids' future prosperity and security. At this
point, a long overdue foreign-policy debate can begin. It will give
Americans a last chance to realign the republic's foreign policy with
the tenets of Washington's Farewell Address and, in so doing, forever
break the corrupting power of the Israel-Firsters, individuals who
Washington uncannily described in 1796 as "ambitious, corrupted, or
deluded citizens … [who] betray or sacrifice the interests of their own
country".

Pray to God this occurs before a cynical, racist Benjamin Netanyahu
presents Obama with a fait accompli that drags 300 million Americans
into Israel's war against Iran.

http://original.antiwar.com/scheuer/2009/05/19/obama-steers-toward-endless-war-with-islam/


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