Obama doctrine: Apologize and attempt to appease

By Isaac Yetiv, Ph.D

SAN DIEGO — 1) The Speech: “Apologize and Appease” —In the Cairo speech of 2009 , newly-minted president Barack Obama summed up his new doctrine on the relationship between the United States and the Islamic world. After a warm greeting of essalamu ‘aleikom, he:
.- Praised Islam as a religion of tolerance.
.- Apologized for America which, “after nine-eleven, acted contrary to our traditions and ideals.”
.- Promised to behave better, to”close Guantanamo within a year” [which he never did], and
“no more torture” [ thus accusing his predecessors of using torture in their enhanced interrogations of the most hardened terrorists.]
.- Denounced in strong terms the Israeli settlements.
He gave them what they wanted to hear, and some. As I wrote previously, this was not done as a political ploy to flatter his audience; he was expressing his genuine beliefs, and conforming to his known ideology.

2) The Revolution: “Arab Spring” or “Islamist winter”
And then, the “Arab Spring” exploded. Let me interject here that I was the first commentator who called it “the Arab winter” in real time, when everybody, left and right, was singing the praises of the new era of ” Arab democracy.” Here is what I wrote in February 2011 : “Mubarak [may be] toppled and forced to flee or worse. Whether by a military coup or via elections, a government will emerge that will include in force the Muslim Brotherhood which is the only organized party in Egypt. History teaches that “Revolutions are started by intellectuals, carried out by fanatics, and the fruits harvested by rogues… The Muslim Brotherhood may become the sole ruler of Egypt, a totalitarian, ruthless, ideologist Islamist government a la Iran, whose first act on the agenda will be to rip to shreds the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and threaten world peace.”

This feared scenario has now materialized, aided and abetted by the president of the United States. who declared , before the Revolution, that “we should reexamine our relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood… and listen to them ; they are part of the Egyptian people…and should participate.., all voices should be heard.” Again, genuinely, Obama embraced the Arab revolution with open arms. No consideration whatsoever for realpolitik, deference to hitherto allies, national interest, or danger to stability. He threw Mubarak under the bus, totally oblivious of the Egyptian dictator’s contribution to peace and stability in the Middle-East for 30 years. He facilitated the demise of the Libyan dictator –although “leading from behind,– who, at that time, had abandoned his quest for nuclear weapons and was collaborating with the US authorities. It does not seem that Obama had, for a moment, asked himself “Who will be the successors of these unsavory, but at least a known quantity, autocrats. As always with this president, ideology trumped pragmatism.

3) The Punishment: “Why do they hate us?”
And then, after the speech and the revolution, the curtain rises over the third act of this tragedy: the punishment. Not of their dictators but of their benefactors, the USA. My father used to say: ” If somebody is mad at you, ask yourself what favor did you do him.” Our billions have just been cashed, and our government has promised to forgive a debt of one billion dollars ( to be borrowed from China); our ambassador they murdered was the best friend of Libya.
The insurgents killed four Americans in Benghazi, including the US ambassador, attacked the US embassies in Tripoli and Cairo, burned and trampled on the American flag, burned President Obama in effigy while yelling “Obama, Obama, we are all Osama !” and shouted “Death to America!” At this writing, the riots have spread to 23 countries in four continents.

4) The (mis)handling of the crisis by the US government: ineptitude or lies — It took a day and a half for the president to denounce, very timidly, the perpetrators. He was busy campaigning, and fundraising, in Las Vegas. One observer couldn’t help comparing him to Nero who was fiddling while Rome was burning.

Days later, the White House Spokesman, the US ambassador to the UN, and even the Secretary of State, and others shamelessly embraced the terrorists’ complaint that their criminal acts were caused by an anti-Islam video, a 14-minute trailer made by a Christian-Arab Egyptian Copt in July, that no one had seen or even heard about, much less the violent rioters. Their talking points were: ” The protests were spontaneous… They were caused by the “film” which was disgusting and reprehensible… and which we denounce…etc.”
This premature official position was later proven false, and we heard no “apologies.” It was so obvious the government was spinning , maybe even deliberately lying, for how could the violent riots be “spontaneous” when the rioters chose the date of September eleven, when they used RPG’s (Rocket-propelled grenades) and other heavy weaponry like mortars, when there was precise military coordination? when 100 fighters, divided in two groups, attacked two places, tortured the ambassador before killing him, and communicated with their commanders military style?

But eight days after the horrible events, the government changed its tunes and made an about-face of 180 degrees. Again , no explanations, no apologies, no admission of “mistakes were made.” They really believe the people are dumb, or apathetic.
Jay Carney now says ” It is self-evident that it was terrorism.” Hillary Clinton is now emphatic about “terrorism, preplanned, coordinated etc…” The president is not yet sure, doesn’t want to “speculate,” needs more information.
Besides, we now know from the Libyans that the Americans were warned three days in advance, and the president of Libya, with a sad and sincere face, called the attacks “pre-planned by criminal terrorists” thus rebuffing the US government while Susan Rice, our ambassador to the UN, still claimed, with a straight face, that they were “spontaneous, not preplanned, not premeditated,” despite the admission by Al Qaeda officials that the killing of Americans was a revenge for the killing of a number two commander of their organization.

From these government trumpets, we heard not one word about “freedom of speech” in American democracy. This could have been a “teachable moment” to those whom we wanted to “democratize” with huge human and financial costs.. Instead, we “burned” our first amendment while they were burning our flags.

We did worse to placate and appease the murderers: a sheriff posse arrested the Christian Copt who is allegedly the author of the 14-minute video, and they will try to find a “crime” to justify their act. Bye bye, cherished first amendment! And the worst in this succession of blunders: Having heard that the Pakistani government had declared yesterday ” a holiday to celebrate the love of the prophet” and demonstrate “peacefully” against America and the “film” that insulted Islam,” President Obama and his Secretary of State Clinton spent $ 70,000 of taxpayer money to produce a “video” to be shown in Pakistan on that “holiday” in which they were seen and heard…apologizing, again, for the other “video” that insulted Islam.

I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. It was so vile! We have really reached bottom. (Apparently, it didn’t help calm the mobs, and 19 of the rioters were killed by the authorities.)

5) The epilogue: Will we learn anything?

(to be continued next article)