{"id":448,"date":"2012-09-21T21:27:50","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T21:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=448"},"modified":"2013-02-12T21:30:01","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T21:30:01","slug":"obama-on-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-on-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama on the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n

National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n

The last three and a half years, Barack Obama has gone out of his way to bow, apologize, contextualize, and scapegoat in order to win Middle Eastern affection. Yet, his reset, \u201cBush did it\u201d policy is now in shambles, and he apparently has nothing with which to replace it.<\/p>\n

So I have a modest suggestion. Obama has a formidable arsenal of invective that he has unleashed against conservatives, Republicans, and just about anyone else on the domestic scene he doesn\u2019t like. Why, then, not redeploy these fire-in-the-belly attacks against those who kill Americans abroad?<\/p>\n

All Obama has to do is imagine that the mobs in the Middle East are not misunderstood Muslims \u2014 who overreacted a bit to an offensive American video \u2014 but rather suspect conservatives and opponents of progressive thought. Then,\u00a0mutatis mutandis<\/em>, Obama might get fired up and level a much-needed warning.<\/p>\n

If he did, it might go like this:<\/p>\n

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we\u2019ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We\u2019ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s be perfectly clear, the Middle East acted stupidly.<\/p>\n

If the people of the Middle East cannot trust their governments to do the job for which they exist \u2014 to protect them and to promote their common welfare \u2014 all else is lost. It\u2019s not surprising, then, that those on the Arab street get bitter; they cling to their religion or antipathy to people who aren\u2019t like them or anti-American sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake about it \u2014 the point I am making is not that Middle Easterners harbor any racial animosity. They don\u2019t. But there is a typical Middle Eastern person, who, if they see somebody on the street that they don\u2019t know, you know, there\u2019s a reaction that\u2019s been bred in their experiences that don\u2019t go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that\u2019s just the nature of religion and race in their society. And so what I think we know \u2014 separate and apart from these incidents \u2014 is that there is a long history in their countries of\u00a0<\/em>average Americans<\/em><\/a>\u00a0being singled out disproportionately, and that\u2019s just a fact. On more than one occasion, they have uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that have made us cringe.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower. So if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun. Because from what I understand, folks in America like a good brawl. I\u2019ve seen our football fans. Make no mistake about it: We\u2019re gonna punish our enemies and we\u2019re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us. So I want America to argue with those radicals in the Middle East and get in their face.<\/p>\n

Finally, as far as Middle Eastern governments go, I don\u2019t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don\u2019t mind cleaning up after them, but don\u2019t do a lot of talking. They just can\u2019t drive their SUVs and eat as much as they want and keep their homes on 72 degrees at all times \u2014 and then just expect that other people are going to say okay. That\u2019s not leadership. That\u2019s not going to happen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Amen, Mr. President.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The last three and a half years, Barack Obama has gone out of his way to bow, apologize, contextualize, and scapegoat in order to win Middle Eastern affection. Yet, his reset, \u201cBush did it\u201d policy is now in shambles, and he apparently has nothing with which to replace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[28,116],"tags":[233,12,30,1016],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-7e","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":476,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-humpty-dumpty-middle-east\/","url_meta":{"origin":448,"position":0},"title":"The Humpty-Dumpty Middle East","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The United States is backing off from the Middle East \u2014 and the Middle East from the United States. 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