by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n In September 1938 English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, explaining why he was flying to Germany a third time in order to make peace with Germany, recited the old nursery rhyme: \u201cIf at first you don\u2019t succeed, try, try, try again.\u201d Cynical wags in the Foreign Office, who knew Chamberlain was in fact appeasing Hitler by surrendering Czechoslovakia to him, quickly began circulating another version of the saying: \u201cIf at first you don\u2019t concede, fly, fly, fly again.\u201d<\/p>\n President Obama\u2019s new \u201coutreach\u201d to the Muslim world reminds me of Chamberlain\u2019s serial efforts to appease a Germany bent on aggression and conquest. First there was the Cairo speech in June 2009, which was supposed to be a \u201cnew beginning\u201d for US relations with Muslims, but in fact simply indulged the same old bad habits of Western self-doubt and historical guilt. Thus Obama attributed the \u201ctension\u201d between the West and Islam to a \u201ccolonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold war in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.\u201d Next came the videotaped New Year\u2019s greetings to Iran, and the multiple letters to the Iranian \u201cSupreme Leader\u201d Ali Khamenei requesting \u201cco-operation in regional and bilateral relations.\u201d These outreaches were followed by Khameini\u2019s announcement that \u201cthe path of Iran\u2019s nuclear progress could not be blocked,\u201d and by the brutal crackdown that summer on the demonstrators protesting the tyranny of the mullahcracy. Meanwhile Iran continues its support of terrorists murdering our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n Obama also extended the hand of friendship to Syria\u2019s Bashar al Assad, sending an ambassador back to Damascus despite that country\u2019s close ties to Iran and Hezbollah, its assassination of Lebanese former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and its support given to terrorists by facilitating their travel into Iraq and Afghanistan. Assad reciprocated by hosting a confab with Hezbollah\u2019s Hassan Nasrallah and Iran\u2019s genocidal Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And like his Iranian buddies, Assad has responded to the current demonstrations against his regime by killing about a thousand protestors. Nor has Obama\u2019s abandonment of Egypt\u2019s Hosni Mubarak worked any magic in changing the Egyptians into liberal democrats or even making them like us more. The jihadist Muslim Brotherhood daily grows more powerful, attacks on Christian Copts, abetted at times by the military, are proliferating, the border with Gaza is open, and more and more Egyptians are calling for trashing the peace treaty with Israel. Unsurprisingly, according to a May Pew Research survey, only 20% of Egyptians view the United States favorably, and only 35% have \u201ca lot\u201d or \u201csome confidence\u201d in Obama\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n In short, every time Obama has offered his hand to Muslims in friendship, the less he and America are liked, and the less events trend in directions favorable to our national interests. Now comes another effort, the recent May 19 address to the Muslim world that attempted to take account of the demonstrations and protests roiling the Middle East, and to outline America\u2019s response. And like those previous efforts, this one will do little to change either perceptions or events, for it is predicated on the same dubious assumptions and misapprehensions that have compromised our reactions to the Muslim world.<\/p>\n The main thrust of Obama\u2019s speech in the main reprises the same Bush Doctrine that the president and his party spent years attacking. The problems of the Muslim Middle East, in this view, result from a lack of political and economic \u201cself-determination\u201d and \u201cuniversal rights\u201d that prevents people from enjoying freedom and prosperity. Tyrannical rulers and jihadist outfits alike exploit this frustration and despair, attempting \u201cto direct their people\u2019s grievances elsewhere,\u201d as Obama puts it, blaming the West, colonialism, and Israel for all that ails the Middle East. The solution, then, is for the United States \u201cto promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy\u201d so that people can obtain \u201ca set of universal rights\u201d including \u201cfree speech; the freedom of peaceful assembly; freedom of religion; equality for men and women under the rule of law; and the right to choose your own leaders.\u201d In addition, economic reform will be supported through efforts \u201cto build networks of entrepreneurs, and expand exchanges in education; to foster cooperation in science and technology, and combat disease.\u201d More practically, this means encouraging the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to provide funds, asking Congress to create Enterprise funds for investment, and forgiving $1 billion in Egyptian debt, with promises of access to $1 billion more.<\/p>\n Lurking behind all this rhetoric, however, is a flawed assumption \u2014 that everybody in the world is just like us and wants the same things we want. This Western article of faith arose in the 19th century, when increasing global trade, European colonial penetration and global dominance, and world-shrinking technologies like the telegraph and steamship seemingly were creating a global \u201charmony of interests\u201d based on a universal rational human nature. Peace, freedom, and prosperity are the deepest desires of all humans, previously unrealized because of persisting religious or tribal superstitions, irrational ethnic and nationalist loyalties, oppressive governments, a lack of education, and poverty. Remove those impediments and the whole world would enter the paradise of peace and plenty. However, as the nightmare history of the 20th century shows \u2014 with its some 200 million slaughtered by war, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and political murder \u2014 human beings may want peace and prosperity, but they want other things as well, some of them dark and violent and not to be appeased with material bribes or concessions.<\/p>\n Our struggle against Islamic jihad has been compromised by this same mistaken assumption. By locating the origins of jihadist terror in the material and political conditions of the Middle East, we have ignored the spiritual roots of jihadism in traditional Islamic theology, and its certainty of Muslim superiority and right to dominate others. This mistake has been obvious in the commentary on the so-called \u201cArab Spring\u201d that Obama\u2019s speech basically recycles. Too many have celebrated the uprisings as efforts to achieve the freedom, prosperity, human rights, and other goods we possess. No doubt some Muslims do want these things. But as the behavior of the new regime in Egypt suggests, perhaps even more want something else in addition to less oppression and corruption and more economic opportunity \u2014 to create an Islamic government that institutes an illiberal Shari\u2019a law and battles more directly against the enemies of Islam such as Israel. These Western idealizers enthusing over the demand for \u201cfreedom\u201d need to ask the most important question \u2014 freedom to do what? Be like us, or be good Muslims? But what if being good Muslims means rejecting foundational democratic principles such as political freedom and human rights?<\/p>\n Chamberlain\u2019s mistake was to think that Germany just wanted to bring home its people who had been unjustly stranded outside of the motherland by the unjust Versailles Treaty. Heal that wound, and the Germans would get back to seeking prosperity and peace with its neighbors. Of course, the majority of Germans wanted something more sinister, a racial empire that dominated its neighbors, and were willing to kill and die and murder to achieve it. That mistaken assumption about German intentions led to the diplomatic disaster of Munich and the following inferno of global war. So too our serial efforts at \u201coutreach,\u201d and our continuous offerings of material incentives and goods like the freedom that we prize, blind us to the spiritual imperatives motivating millions of people in the Muslim world.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time we stopped reacting to a world we have created from our own wish-fulfilling assumptions and delusions, and start heeding the wisdom of scripture: By their fruits ye shall know them. We have rescued Muslims from murderous thugs in Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan; we have transferred billions and billions to Muslim nations, including the terrorist PLO; we have spent our blood and treasure to create for Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan the freedom and self-determination Obama\u2019s speech proclaims we support and Muslims desire; we have done all this, yet outside Indonesia and Lebanon, not even 1 in 5 Muslims like us. Maybe it\u2019s time to rethink our assumptions.<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine In September 1938 English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, explaining why he was flying to Germany a third time in order to make peace with Germany, recited the old nursery rhyme: \u201cIf at first you don\u2019t succeed, try, try, try again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,196],"tags":[12,249,229,1050,317,1069,1039,1017,1061,30,545,1041,1016,58],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-I3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8260,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bad-ideas-breed-bad-foreign-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2731,"position":0},"title":"Bad Ideas Breed Bad Foreign Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine Barack Obama\u2019s foreign policy will go down in U.S. history as one of the most dangerously inept ever. Created by equal amounts of ignorance, arrogance, and partisan politics, the president\u2019s policies have left behind a world in which rivals and enemies are on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Contributors"","block_context":{"text":"Our Contributors","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via FrontPage Magazine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/201113jobs.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":309,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-ghosts-of-1938-still-haunt-our-foreign-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2731,"position":1},"title":"The Ghosts of 1938 Still Haunt Our Foreign Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thronton Frontpage Magazine In a story describing President Obama\u2019s six conversations with Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi that led to the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0summarized Obama\u2019s estimation of Morsi. Obama told his aides \u201che was impressed with the Egyptian leader\u2019s pragmatic confidence. He sensed an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2717,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/appeasing-jihadists\/","url_meta":{"origin":2731,"position":2},"title":"Appeasing Jihadists","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A policy of guilt and flattery will not temper terrorists. by Bruce S. Thornton Defining Ideas In 1937, the London\u00a0Times\u00a0editor Geoffrey Dawson wrote to his correspondent in Geneva, \"I do my best, night after night, to keep out of the paper anything that might hurt [German] susceptibilities . . .\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":396,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-nobel-committee-and-its-orwellian-peace-prize\/","url_meta":{"origin":2731,"position":3},"title":"The Nobel Committee and Its Orwellian Peace Prize","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine Norway\u2019s Nobel Committee added yet another absurd pick to its long list of politicized and shameful Peace Prize awards. Giving the prize to the disintegrating European Union is not as despicable as giving it to the bloodstained terrorist Yasser Arafat, or as laughably naive as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6386,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-contrary-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":2731,"position":4},"title":"Our Contrary President","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine Remember the \u201ccontrary\u201d Sioux warrior from\u00a0Little Big Man? He did everything backwards\u2013\u2013said \u201chello\u201d for \u201cgoodbye,\u201d washed in sand instead of water. Our president is the foreign policy contrary. He has gotten backwards every maxim of proven wisdom for dealing with the rest of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2214,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-the-prize-and-political-theater\/","url_meta":{"origin":2731,"position":5},"title":"Obama, the Prize and Political Theater","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Giving Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, after a mere nine months in office and no foreign policy achievements whatsoever, confirms that the prize is a bit of political theater in which those Americans who put the world\u2019s interests ahead of their own country\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2732,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2731\/revisions\/2732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}