The Failure of American Leadership

Obama’s foreign policy of appeasement has created a dangerous void in the international order.

by Victor Davis Hanson // Defining Ideas 

The standard critique of President Obama’s foreign policy is now generally well-known—Photo Credit: Robert Hruzek vic Flickrmercurial, paradoxical, and passive. “Leading from behind” seems at odds with the traditional American commitment to ensure—preferably with allies or, if need be, alone—the continuance of the postwar global system of sovereign borders, free trade, safe commerce, and open communications.

Many of Obama’s recent foreign policy initiatives have resulted in a diminished United States and they have found little success. The reset with Russia earned us a strange sort of contempt from Vladimir Putin. Moscow almost gratuitously thwarts the U.S., gloating that we offer loud self-righteous sermons to others that are not backed by consequences.

The Obama administration’s approach to radical Islam and the larger Middle East has been especially confused. Al Qaeda is not, as the president assured, on the run, but more likely moving onward and upward. Continue reading “The Failure of American Leadership”

Overseas Contingency Operations and Such

by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media 

On the occasion of the outreach from Iran, and the embarrassment in Syria, it is wise to remember why and how our leaders became so inept at dealing with Islamists. Continue reading “Overseas Contingency Operations and Such”

Muslim Persecution of Christians: June, 2013

by Raymond Ibrahim // Gatestone Institute 

The degradation of Christian women living in the Islamic world continued in the month of June.  In Syria, after the al-Qaeda linked rebel group conquered Qusair, a city of the governate of Homs, 15-year-old Mariam was kidnapped, repeatedly gang raped according to a fatwa legitimizing the rape of non-Sunni women by any Muslim waging jihad against Syria’s government, and then executed. Continue reading “Muslim Persecution of Christians: June, 2013”

On 9/11 — A Look Back, a Look Forward

The as now, the Arab world’s self-induced pathologies cannot be cured by American self-doubt.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

September 11, 2001, was not just a tragedy, but rather a willful act of war by radical Islamists who hate Western civilization and the American version of it in particular. They achieved, by their cunning and our laxity, a horrendous loss of 800px-Wtc-2004-memorialAmerican life. Indeed, they did something that no enemy had succeeded at since the War of 1812: bringing the war home to the U.S. and inflicting human, material, and economic damage on a colossal scale.

They were emboldened by our prior inability to respond to provocations. A 20-year cycle of Islamist-inspired violence from Tehran to Lebanon to the 1993 World Trade Center attack to the USS Cole in Continue reading “On 9/11 — A Look Back, a Look Forward”

The Israeli Spring

Israel’s enemies are doing more damage to each other than Israel ever could.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

Israel could be forgiven for having a siege mentality — given that at any moment, old frontline enemies Syria and Egypt might spill their violence over common borders.

The Arab Spring has thrown Israel’s once-predictable adversaries into the chaotic state of a Sudan or Somalia. The old understandings between Jerusalem and the Assad and Mubarak kleptocracies seem in limbo.

Yet these tragic Arab revolutions swirling around Israel are paradoxically aiding it, both strategically and politically — well beyond just the erosion of conventional Arab military strength. Continue reading “The Israeli Spring”

Obama Crosses Red Line by Supporting Jihadi Terrorism

by Raymond Ibrahim // Jihad Watch

By now it should be obvious that whenever the U.S. interferes in another nation’s politics in the name of “human rights,” that that is only a pretext. So it is in Syria, as Obama prepares to plunge America in a war with that nation, and, inevitably, its allies. The United States’ stated reason for intervention, as articulated by John Kerry, is that Syrian President Assad used Continue reading “Obama Crosses Red Line by Supporting Jihadi Terrorism”

A Terror Leader Behind Bars in Egypt

by Raymond Ibrahim // FrontPage Magazine

The supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the head of the Islamist snake, Muhammad Badie—who had slipped security forces by traveling in and out of the Brotherhood torture camps (known as “peaceful sits ins” by the mainstream media”)—has finally been arrested in Egypt and is awaiting trial.  Not only was he the leader of the Brotherhood, but, according to Brotherhood members themselves, he was giving orders to his underling, Muhammad Morsi, the now ousted Egyptian president.

Continue reading “A Terror Leader Behind Bars in Egypt”

The Middle East: All Bad Choices

From Libya to Iran, our past actions have drastically limited our current choices.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

Survey the Middle East, and there is nothing about which to be optimistic.

Iran is either fueling violence in Syria or racing toward a bomb, or both. Continue reading “The Middle East: All Bad Choices”

Murbarak’s Muslim Brotherhood Prophecy

by Raymond Ibrahim // Gatestone Institute

In a video of Hosni Mubarak when he was still Egypt’s president, the strategies of which he accuses the Muslim Brotherhood have come to pass.  What follows are Mubarak’s words from a conference in Egypt (date unknown; author’s translation): Continue reading “Murbarak’s Muslim Brotherhood Prophecy”

Egyptians Enraged by U.S. Outreach to Muslim Brotherhood

by Raymond Ibrahim // PJ Media

In the eyes of tens of millions of Egyptians, Senators John McCain’s and Lindsey Graham’s recent words and deeds in Egypt—which have the “blessing” of President Obama—have unequivocally proven that U.S. leadership is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood. Continue reading “Egyptians Enraged by U.S. Outreach to Muslim Brotherhood”