In the space of three short years, president Obama has proved to be a one man wrecking crew when it comes to American national security issues and the exercise of foreign policy.
Some key areas of concern, many of them intertwined:
1. Cairo speech, June 4, 2009 [transcript, WH website, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-cairo-university-6-04-09]
This one disastrous speech [which could easily have been written by Ingrid Mattson, former president of the Muslim Brotherhood front group ISNA and friend of this WH] made clear to the world the operative tone of the Obama administration’s strategic approach to foreign policy, one of withdrawal, appeasement and apology. It placed the world on notice [in a particularly noxious manner given its location, Al-Azhar University, the seat of Wahhabi Islam, and the administration’s guests which included prominent members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood] that under his guidance America had officially ceded its leadership position in world affairs. The fallout from that speech set in motion a chain of events which should have been predictable It served to legitimize the “Arab Spring” which continues to be the motive force behind the a hard line, militant resurgence of Islamism in the Middle East.
There have been many in-depth examinations of this speech [our take at the time was and remains, “Broadly defined, Obama’s speech consisted almost entirely of pandering to the Middle East, presenting an inauthentic picture of the nature of the clash between the West and Islam...”] but it is still striking that barely into this much anticipated statement, Obama joined the left and their Islamist allies in a wholesale revisionist indictment of American foreign policy.
In this same speech Mr. Obama broadened his personal mandate to include the defense of Islam, “I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear...”
The very idea that an American president would, post 9/11, feel the need to enforce a thoroughly inaccurate and agendized picture of Islam still causes jaws to drop.
The Cairo speech also served as a backdrop for the administration’s incomprehensible embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood and its ideological partners here in the United States under the misnomer of Muslim outreach.
A few examples:
James Clapper is purportedly the Director of National Intelligence, nominally the U.S.’ lead spy. However, judging from his statements - especially regarding his wholly concocted defense of the Muslim Brotherhood, calling it “largely secular” - his performance has been abysmal.
The State Dept. has long had a fond eye for the Muslim Brotherhood, even during the Bush years, however under the estimable expertise of Hillary Clinton, State’s outreach to the MB has gained considerable traction. In the below parlance, limited contact, is certainly a whopper of an understatement.
Specifically referring to Team Obama’s domestic Muslim outreach, John Guandolo, a former FBI agent and current anti-terror trainer asserts that this outreach is really to Muslim Brotherhood front groups and other Islamist organizations:
2. Failure to keep Cuba out of OAS, meddling in Honduran politics supporting Marxist [and Chavez bud] Manuel Zelaya in his bid to emulate Chavez’ concept of “president for life.”
In June of 2009 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [the worst Secretary of State since at least Warren Christopher] undercut U.S. security [abrogating the nearly two century old precedent against foreign intervention against Western interest in this hemisphere, the Monroe Doctrine], ineptly allowing the Organization of American States - conceived as a firewall against the spread of leftist totalitarianism - to overturn its long standing [1962] suspension of Cuba from the organization. The effect of this abrupt change in policy helped to facilitate Hugo Chavez’ increasing influence in South America while at the same time empowering Castro’s Cuba.
During the same month, Team Obama massively interfered in the internal affairs of Honduras, attempting to keep Manuel Zelaya - a hard core leftist and ally of Hugo Chavez - in power after he had been deposed by the military, a move supported by the country’s high court. Unbelievably, as Mrs. Clinton carried on “high level” discussions in DC with the ousted Zelaya, the administration withdrew $30 million in foreign aid to the country to apply further pressure on the embattled Honduran leadership. The administration actually went as far as to brand the ouster of the corrupt Zelaya, who was preparing to suspend the Honduran constitution, as a “coup.”
3. Hugo Chavez empowering Hezbollah.
The administration has simply ignored South America, especially the cancer known as Hugo Chavez, allowing him to establish close ties with Iran whose proxy army, Hezbollah has set up forward operating bases in northern Venezuela.
Team Obama has also looked the other way as Chavez also established close ties with Russia and Iran, signing a deal to purchase millions of dollars worth of armaments from the cash strapped former Soviet dictatorship and as previously mentioned, providing nuclear assistance to Iran’s weapons program.
4. Sellout of Europe via a deal with Russia to nix a long planned missile defense system designed primarily to shield it from Iranian attack. This pact, harmful to the U.S. and its closest allies, served to embolden Russia’s newly revived expansionism. Rather than using this opportunity for what Team Obama then called a “reset” between these former Cold War combatants, Russia increased its aid to America’s most dangerous adversaries, especially Iran where Russian nuclear technicians are helping the Mullocracy to develop offensive nuclear weapons.
As the September 18, 2009 edition of the Wall Street Journal noted:
5. Incompetence in handling the Iranian nuclear question including a refusal by the administration to back Iran’s “Green” freedom movement or even issue a caustic reprimand to Ahmadinejad as his thugs attacked, murdered and tortured hundreds of Greens protesting on the streets of Tehran after the 2009 rigged election.
6. Failure to confront the presence of Hezbollah in Mexico. Hezbollah has been operating in Mexico for a number of years, now found to be linking up with the drug cartels. There are approximately 200,000 Syrian and Lebanese immigrants in the country according to a Georgetown University study, thus providing a large pool of potential talent for Hezbollah operations. According to a confidential Arizona police report which only saw the light of day because it was hacked, Ali Jameel Nasr, probably Hezbollah’s top commander in Mexico was arrested in Tijuana in 2010. U.S. security officials will neither confirm nor deny the arrest, with State claiming that it would have no way to confirm such an arrest regardless, since this type of information is not shared with the U.S. by Mexico.
“Islamic terrorist groups are setting up shop in Mexico and forming alarming ties with the country’s brutal drug cartels, according to a 2010 internal memo from the Tucson Police Department. The memo, leaked by the hacker group LulzSec as part of its Arizona Department of Public Safety hack, warns that Hezbollah has established operations — and a large arms stockpile - in Mexico. As evidence, it points to the 2010 Tijuana arrest of Hezbollah militant Jameel Nasr, who was allegedly tasked with establishing a Hezbollah network in Mexico and South America. The memo also recalls the April 2009 arrest of Jamal Yousef in New York, which exposed a huge cache of assault rifles, hand grenades, explosives and anti-tank munitions. According to Yousef, the weapons were stored in Mexico after being smuggled from Iraq by members of Hezbollah.” [source, Business Insider, http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-07-14/politics/30060540_1_islamic-militants-hezbollah-cartels#ixzz1el0r01mA]
7. Ignoring an act of war against the U.S. committed by IRG/Quds cells in the U.S. which were involved in a busted conspiracy [first revealed in October, to very little media fanfare] to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States. The existence of this plot not only confirms Iran’s murderous intent within the borders of the United States, it also demonstrates that IRG/Quds cells are present and apparently ready for action. Ominously, these cells are linking up with the Mexican drug cartels.
As the Washington Post observed:
8. Fanning the fires of Islamic fanaticism by giving vocal support to Egypt’s “Arab Spring” even though it was obvious from the start that the movement would be dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. As part of this effort the U.S. threw Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak under the bus, thus losing a long-time ally [and the sole Arab signatory to the 1979 peace treaty, ending - at least for Egypt - the official state of war which has existed between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors since 1948]. Through his deligitimization of Mubarak, Team Obama has destroyed important leverage within Egypt’s officer corp. much of which received training in the U.S.
Since the Arab Spring has freed up considerable Islamist rage throughout the region it has served as the newest major source of instability throughout the region. One obvious additional casualty has been Libya, now in the hands of al-Qaeda influenced Islamists, thanks to Obama’s military actions. Perhaps the worst blowback to come out of this however has been the much reported dispersal of approximately 20,000 shoulder fired missiles [formerly under Libyan control] into the hands of North Africa’s Muslim revolutionaries.
9. Ill advised and hasty retreat from both Iraq and Afghanistan, ignoring military advice all along the way. Through the sacrifice of over 6,200 lives, George Bush was able to hand over to Barack Obama a relatively stable Iraq along with a troubled Afghanistan. From its inception the Obama administration has made clear its intent to abruptly pull out of these two countries absent any manner of victory. This has undermined both governments, forcing them into hedging negotiations with those whom we sought to militarily defeat in the first place. Absent any significant American presence in these countries, Afghanistan will likely once again fall under the influence of Pakistan’s terror-linked ISI - which created the Taliban - and Iraq will be forced to deal with Iran from a position of weakness already knowing that Mr. Obama will not confront the Mullahs.
10. The sellout of Israel under this administration has been complete as has its tilt towards the “Palestinians.” Obama’s understanding of the Palestinian question seems to have been formed quite a while ago by the likes of Rashid Khalidi, with whom he has had a close relationship.
Mr. Khalidi’s background regarding Mr. Obama is intriguing. Consider a farewell party for Khalidi which was attended by then state senator Obama. Also on hand were domestic terrorists Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn.
As Andrew McCarthy wrote, just weeks before the 2008 election:
This administration has been antagonistic to Israel from its start. It was Obama’s State Department which for the first time raised the issue of Israeli “settlements” [i.e. building apartments in East Jerusalem] as an impediment to negotiating with the Palestinian Authority. Previously this had never been a subject of controversy regarding such talks.
Obama’s treatment of Israel is consistent with his dhimmi Muslim outreach efforts but in short form, all one really needs to know about his administration’s take on Israel is the disgraceful way he’s treated Israeli PM Netanyahu on his visits to the WH, his tepid response to the Gaza Flotilla [Netanyahu was in this country at the time and it was reported that Obama abruptly asked him to leave rather than use the White House as a platform to refute the misinformation surrounding the terror flotilla], the U.N. vote on Palestinian statehood and his apparent agreement with French president Sarkozy’s characterization of Netanyahu as a “liar,” in comments caught by a supposedly dead microphone at the recent G20 meeting. For emphasis Obama added to Sarkozy’s indictment, stating, “You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day!”
Conclusion:
All administrations make foreign policy miscalculations and flat-out get it wrong sometimes. This is the nature of such an art. But this administration has made such devastatingly bad choices in its dealings with foreign powers that Mr. Obama stands alone among modern American presidents, in booting nearly every important foreign policy decision.
Obama’s team, comprised primarily of recycled Clintonista foreign policy hacks and political thugs from Chicago simply has no clue as to what would constitute a reasonable approach to dealing with the world. Obama’s actions seem more designed curry favor with future lefty historians than being motivated by his primary responsibility which is protecting the American public from foreign threat. On that count he has failed miserably.
