Arab Winter

Shortly after his inauguration, President Obama went to Cairo and announced a new beginning with the Arab world.  His predecessor had been arrogant and didn't understand the Muslim world.  Obama had grown up in Malaysia and been exposed to Islam.  He would bring about excellent relations with the Arab world.  After nearly 4 years of the Obama foreign policy, how are things?

Egypt, an ally since 1970, is in the process of turning into the next Iran.  Despite all the cheerleading from last year and claims from both Republicans and Democrats that Democracy was on the march in the Middle East, the Middle East is instead in flames.  Embassies have been attacked in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, and Yemen.  Protests are much more widespread.  The administration proclaims that it is because of a movie that is insulting to Islam.  Less frequently mentioned is the video released on September 10th by the head of al Qaeda calling for revenge against the Americans killing of the number 2 man at al Qaeda, who happened to be Libyan.  Hmmm.  Also not pointed out much is that we had intel of planned attacks on embassies a couple of days earlier.  The administration declared that is wasn't actionable.  Hmmm.

Almost coincident with this, I saw a clip on CBS that was trouncing President Bush for not acting on the August 6th Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) that indicated that bin Laden was determined to strike in the US.  No specific targets had been provided which made it difficult to respond effectively.  Now, if it had said embassies in the Middle East would be targeted, that would have been actionable.  You know, you could have embassy staff on extra alert, beef up security, practice evacuation procedures, and so forth.  Though exactly that intel came in, we did nothing.

Then we have the interesting news that says Obama misses roughly half of the PDBs.  If Bush had done that, he would have been excoriated by the press.  Hardly a peep with Obama.

Obama's foreign policy can be summed up in five words: Osama bin Laden is dead.  Everything else is in shambles.  Our allies have been treated badly (Israel, Britain, Poland) in an effort to win over our adversaries (Russia, Iran).  While Obama hesitated in backing a revolution against a known enemy - Iran, he jumped on the bandwagon for a revolution against a longtime ally - Egypt.  Yes, dictators have been dislodged but what is replacing them?  Jihadist Islamist is what.  That's going from bad to worse.  Unfortunately for Obama, the inevitable blow up of his policy is kicking in just as the election looms.

Also disappointing was Secretary Clinton's comments on the death of Ambassador Stevens.  To hear her tell it, she doesn't know the facts on the ground in Libya.  It was widely reported that some of the rebels during last year's uprising were from al Qaeda.  Throughout the Arab Spring, there has been this crazy notion that people living under the iron thumb of dictators in Islamic countries would suddenly become secular democrats.  It is amazing how many people in high office are surprised that it isn't working out that way.  These people need to read some history books.