The Wimp Goes to War
I don’t think that Obama and his three Valkyries (Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power) see the big war plain, but I hope they see the logic according to which if-it’s-right-to-defend-Libyans-it’s-even-more-right-to-defend-Iranians-and-Syrians. There is one pretty straw in the wind: Obama’s video to the Iranian people on the occasion of the Norooz holiday. “I am with you,” he said to young Iranians fighting their evil regime. No more outstretched hand, it seems.
It isn’t a pretty moment, but as we all know, it’s better to be lucky than to be smart. If, through the confused underbrush of mushy internationalism and humanitarian interventionism we arrive at a decision to finally challenge our main enemies, I’ll take it. If we get an end to the reign of the fanatics in Damascus and Tehran, the whole world will change, decidedly for the better.
Valkyries! If we could bring down the Soviet Empire without bombing Leningrad, we can surely bring down the hollow tyrannies of our mortal enemies in the Middle East in a similar manner. Khamenei’s Islamic Republic is even more fragile than Gorbachev’s Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
If, on the other hand, we’re doing the Libya thing because our leader wants to show the world that he’s fully capable of dropping bombs on a madman with oil, then the world will get decidedly grimmer.
Obama! Now that your brackets have been busted (yes, I was at the Verizon Center when little Butler brought down big bad Pitt), play in the big leagues. We’re America, we dream big dreams, we can change the world. You’ll love it. But go for the big win, go for victory in the big war, the real war. The little places will become oh so much easier.
Always a pleasure to read your take
This administration has even more issues with the word “victory” than the previous one did. It took Bush II years to overrule his advisers and seek victory in Iraq.
What about the word OBAMULATE? It’s a very real word. Anyone who thinks otherwise should go buy an OED as penance. However, “to walk about” is the strict definition by way of the entymology.
PRONUNCIATION:
(o-BAM-byuh-layt)
MEANING:
verb tr.: To walk about. To wander aimlessly
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin ob- (towards, against) + ambulare (to walk). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ambhi- (around) that is also the source of ambulance, alley, preamble, and bivouac. The first print citation of the word is from 1614.
Source(s):
Oxford English Dictionary
Why, Mr. Ledeen, do you plead so much with Obama? Is it rhetorical? If Obama is anything he is a left-wing ideologue, and that is far worse than being a wimp. One can, theoretically at least, reason with a wimp, but not an ideologue. There is every reason to view Obama, as far as his ideological rigidity is concerned, as an American V.I. Lenin. This guy has lived in a bubble all his life and he will leave office in a bubble that reality will never penetrate.
Hey, You are being too tough on Obama. After all he did cut short his Central America vacation by two hours!
Obama is doing this to support the radical muslims who have been whipped into a furor by Richard Trumka, Bill Ayers and crew. The uprisings all across the Middle East are all part of a plan for the worldwide caliphate, aided and abbetted by the American Left. Sure, there are people who are fighting and dying who want to be free from they tyranny of their dictators, but these same folks also shout “Allahu Ahkbar” and want a theocracy. Persia is the exception – but as you can see, Obama was silent about the massacre of freedom fighters there.
Agreed. This thought just goes to show the lack of gray matter on the left. The muslims will kill the lefties after they take power. No amount of butt kissing or PC towards their new masters will keep them upright
Fairbanks99-Absolutely, your analysis is on point.
In fact, the only ones worth going to the mat for are the Iranian freedom fighters, but notice, Obama won’t help them with a ten foot pole.
He understands that the heads of the Islamic snake originate in Iran, and are aided by Syria and worldwide leftist revolutionaries, therefore, he (as well as Bush did )will leave them unmolested.
Consider:if the radical leftists in power in Washington want to stop bloody civilian carnage, (as they claim)all they would have to do is upend Tehran and Damascus.The rest of the bloody dictators would have to fall into line, simply because most of their aid is coming from the above Islamic barbarians. Without their support they would die a ‘natural’ death.
ALL signs are leading to the morphing of Islamist powers and one world order revolutionaries.Once this strategy is understood surrounding events begin to make sense.The hapless public buys into the nonsense that Obama and his cohorts are protecting the innocent civilians.Balderdash.
Muslim Brotherhood.
Obama’s on THAT side. What seems his inconsistency is no such thing.
Barry is a power forward on MB b’ball team. See his moves as he cuts ties with the western world and shows how he alone is a bracket-buster.
Actually our earnest activist of a president was already stirring things up in the Middle East while still wearing his domestic hat a couple of years earlier. The stimulus, cash for clunkers, and other sundry financial and monetary manipulations were bound to trigger some inflationary momentum, sooner of later. Inflation always hits the poor before it affects the rich, which is why the increases in food prices have stressed the people of places like Egypt, Yemen, Lybia and even Syria while we have barely started to notice the trend here. The Middle East is always a powder keg, which is not an excuse for raising the temperature by cooking things up “for the good of our national economy”.
Incompetence also has consequences, which is bad enough if it’s only pure incompetence. But when it’s really bad, you start to question whether there is some malevolence in the kitchen, too?
It is easy for me to armchair criticize, but we Americans, or at least American politicians, do not understand war. We are far too legalistic and worried about the “international community’s” opinion. During the Vietnam War, we didn’t openly pursue the enemy into Cambodia, Laos, and even North Vietnam. During the first Gulf War, George Herbert Walker Bush did not pursue the routed Iraqi army to complete destruction as it fled Kuwait. Afterwards, to make up for not doing so, we maintained a “no-fly zone” for years until George W. Bush finished the job in the second Gulf War. Off the coast of Somalia, we pussy-foot around with pirates. Pirates, for God’s sake. In the twenty-first century.
Can you imagine the German Wermacht during World War II not pressing its advantage? Later in the war, can you imagine the Red Army not pressing its advantage. Legalisms are legalisms, but war is war. We Americans need to show our enemies what Sherman showed the South in his march from Atlanta to the sea. It wasn’t pretty. It left a lot of bitter feelings in Georgia for decades afterwards. But, the Civil War came to an end a lot sooner as a result. There needs to be a little more “Marching Through Georgia” and a whole lot less forging of international coalitions.
In war and international politics, it is far more effective to be feared than for us to be constantly seeking love and approval. Also, significant use of force results in far fewer American casualties than the “nuanced” use of force and diplomacy that Obama and so many on the Left prefer.
We need a president with knowledge of history, war, and the wielding of power. Oh. We also need a president with a spine.
We need to face the fact we have a cultural war of almost irreconcilable proportions. Our two societies view the world completely differently. Remember, the word, “Israel” means to struggle. The word, “Islam” means to submit. Struggle and victory is far more in keeping with the American character than submission and denigration.
God save our Republic.
Every word a pearl, Harvard, none moreso than these:
“In war and international politics, it is far more effective to be feared than for us to be constantly seeking love and approval. Also, significant use of force results in far fewer American casualties than the “nuanced” use of force and diplomacy that Obama and so many on the Left prefer.”
I would only add that given the current rules of engagement that are proving so lethal to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the insane policy of bean bags at the border, we seem to be on a suicide mission to annihilate the bravest, most courageous individuals in our society, those who are willing to die to defend our way of life. At least for me, continuing to believe that all this is simply a matter of a lack of “knowledge of history, war, and the wielding of power…[and] a spine,” is becoming more difficult with every passing day.
http://www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk
How can we fight a war when the Commander in Chief won’t even allow the word to be said? Instead we have “kinetic military action” in Libya and “overseas contingency operations” against the Jihadists.
Hey, it’s not about war, it’s about oil!Willie got Iraqi oil in return for a Marc Rich pardon (and, mat still be profiting), why shouldn’t some of the Kenyan’s pimps make a few bucks off stolen Libyan oil?
Dr Ledeen: yes! This is why I gravitated towards your stuff as a young man trying to figure out the world after 9/11. In just a few short paragraphs you acknowledge a reality most everyone is intent on denying, and do so as forcefully, and more clearly, than our political leaders. The answer is so obvious.
I don’t see why Libya has to be linked to the Iran-axis problem. Yes, America and the West in general should be doing what they can to undermine the Iranian regime and its allies and proxies. But unless you’re suggesting that the aircraft being deployed in Libya now should be strafing IRGC bases or something, there’s nothing about the Libyan operation that interferes with the Iranian project (assuming that the latter is actually being pursued).
Libya should be thought of as a purely opportunistic action–a brutal anti-American dictator suddenly found himself unexpectedly embattled, and the US decided to try to take quick advantage of the situation. As for grand strategy, if the long-term effect is that dictators begin thinking twice before being as bombastically radical as Gaddafi, then so much the better–no?
We are out of Money… We cannot ‘afford’ these ‘wars’… We need to stop handing over fists full of money to corrupt, power hungry, selfish, terrorist Leaders..! They obviously have their “Own” money. If anyone should demand reparations, it is the United States…just what are ‘we’ getting out of all these wars? Are we idiots??? “All” these people HATE US. No matter what we do, or don’t do, it does not matter they HATE US… ENOUGH ALREADY!
As far as Iran is concerned I always remember an on the street interview with two teenage Iranian girls in jeans and tank tops on the streets of Tehran about 5 years ago. When asked how they felt about the U.S. invading Iran over whatever the crises at the time was this was their reply, and I thought it was priceless, do you think they could come and just get rid of the mullahs and then leave. This was two teenage girls not political or religious hacks of one variety or the other.
If this boneheaded western world of ours does one thing right it would be to support Iran’s dissidents whatever the cost. I say this not from one TV clip but from listening to an Iranian business acquaintance of mine and his wife over the past couple of years. They are back in Iran a couple of times a year to visit family. Without getting any more longwinded than I already have been these people over there are desperate for help from the west and feel bitter at being forgotten. According to Ali and his wife the vast majority supports the west and would love to see the last of the mullahs. For those of you out there old enough to remember Tehran at the time of the Shaw it was a beautiful city and about as western as city in that area of the world including the Paris of the east, Beirut.
Given US tacit approval of Saudi occupation of Bahrain; I think US is no longer in position to help Iranian democrats. It’s best now for Iranian democrats to distance themselves from US. Short of a drastic change in US position in support of GCC tyrannies, I am not optimistic of any US role.
I explain the Bahrain politics and consequences below. Read it. This is much bigger deal that Libya and it will be much more consequential. Mark my words.
I read, thank you.
people who read here, Bahraini freedom-fighters ask that you do not forget Saudi occupation forces now suffocating them and carrying them off for torture to Saudi-run jails. Now there is evidence that the attack on Pearl was mostly carried out by Wahabi occupation forces (not surprising given that they destroyed a national monument, tore up the very pavement… only occupation forces do such things). No one speaks for Bahrainis and many here are willing to sacrifice them for the “greater” battle.
It is repugnant and shameful but also consequential:
I for one firmly beleive, given tacit support for oppression in Bahrain (from Obama administration to many on the Right) it is best that US stays away from Iranian internal affairs. For the Wahabi assault on a symbolic fragment of Iran is serious matter; this is a virtual and symbolic assault on Iran herself, nearly an act of war, it may lead to war. Many do not know this, but unlike Lebanon and Iraq, many of Bahrainis are actually ethnically Iranian. If Iranian democrats destabilize Iran (as they did in 1978) what will the US do if Saudi-GCC decide, as Saddam did, now it is a good time to weaken the greatest threat to their tyranny? The Iranian nation itself.
Same thing US did when Saddam attacked? Same thing when Saudis occupied Bahrain? What if Iranian 3 islands in the Persian Gulf are occupied by GCC during the revolution?
The danger to the Iranian territorial integrity and unity now outweighs the need for political change. I think green movement should heed the danger and balance the attempt to overthrow the government against Saudi-GCC assault.
I am now firmly oppose to destabilization of Iran until the Saudi threat and US tacit support for it plays itself out. We do not want a repeat of Iraq’ attack, US has even closer relation with Saudi-GCC and there is real possibility, we will have a repeat of support for Arab attack on Persia.
Iran is digging its own grave unless the its citizens depose the barbarians who lead their country.
Don’t worry mongols did not manage to dig Iran a grave, mullas will not either.
On more realistic prospects, the task of democratic opposition is to position itself politically so the populace perceives it not acting against national interests. That was my serious point.
Rezaalijan remember David Hume: the past is not a reliable guide to the future.
There is no guide to the future; only conflicting rhetorics about it.
(me engaging in it with you all)
pay only attention to the “serious” part of my post Michael, with an if.
“If we could bring down the Soviet Empire without bombing Leningrad, we can surely bring down the hollow tyrannies of our mortal enemies in the Middle East in a similar manner.” There is some fine optimism. Yes it should be easy. All we have to do is remember what we did right and then either do it now or adapt it. Then why is it so hard? Why aren’t we winning? Why were the Grandys cut off? http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/was-it-something-we-said/
I think it is because the ideology of Islam is harder to access than the ideology of Communism. Lots of people could read Marx, and saw right through him. But Islam is harder to read, because the sacred books do not tell a story from start to end. In fact, once people do find the chronological story of Muhammed they also see right through him, even more easily than through Marx. But getting to that stage is harder, simply because the story of Mohammed’s life is jumbled up to confuse people. We have to edit the sacred books so they are in date order and we have to make the books cumpulsory reading for as many people as we can.
Islamic ideology is even more clueless than communism. The problem is that political correctness dictates that anyone who criticizes a “religion” is a bigot.
Both ideologies are utterly clueless (and utter is utter) thus they both ultimately have to kill anyone who dissents in any way (when they have the power). There is just no other answer they can give.
“political correctness dictates that anyone who criticizes a “religion” is a bigot.”
Except Christianity and Zionism.
I think you and Michael both overlook a critical fact. The Soviet Union was an atheist ideology, imposed from above on unwilling people. Islam is also a gangster ideology, but it is dressed up as a religion, and the inhabitants of the Islamic world have no desire to be free of it. They are merely arguing over who gets to run the gang. None of them want the gang disbanded.
I sure would like a puff from whatever it is that you are smoking. The indigenous people don’t want to be freed from Islam? Ask that question from the average Iranian walking the “Persian Street”.
“We took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan. We fought the wrong war in Iraq. Bin Laden is still free.” So, Obama, are we taking our eye off the ball again? Have we killed or captured bin Laden yet?
“Spreading democracy throughout the world.” Bush II
“Democratization of Libya.” Guess who?
Political expediency. Nothing else. Will we be nation-building in Libya next? Will we be using their oil money, or our own? Any bets on how this will turn out? No-fly, then invasion? Or “advisors” first, then invasion and nation-building?
And of course, he did it without consulting Congress, because after all, the UN had spoken. He’s an International Socialist. Or maybe an International Muslim. God, who knows? Whatever he does always seems to be exactly the worst thing for America. Makes me sick.
And then there is Hillary with the 3AM phone call. Yeah, that worked out great.
Netanyahu and Israel LOVED Palin. So did India. Of course, she is the dumb one with no foreign policy creds. Right. Could the contrast be more stark?
Rome is burning.
So, we are in this little “police action” to insure domestic tranquility in Libya, and assure that civilians are not unnecessary targets/victims of the war. Fine. However, Libya is a tribal society. What happens if/when the Eastern tribes win? Do we honestly expect they will not seek revenge/retribution for GoDaffy’s depredations? Really?
I agree with Dr. Ledeen that this is indeed a war between civilization and a totalitarian death-cult. But what is the ultimate end-game scenario? Let’s say we win this titanic, centuries-old struggle. How do we define winning? When we accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, we occupied the country for a period of years and set about de-Nazification. How do we accomplish the “de-Islamization” of over a billion Muslims?
You defeat your enemies by conquering them on the battlefield and then supplanting their ideology, government and culture with your own. How exactly are we to accomplish this, or at the very least, how doe we spur on the equivalent of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment in the Muslim world, ideally in a non-violent way, so that the jihad and dhimmitude become repugnant to those who now extol their virtues?
I’d like to hear the answer to that question.
JJ Sefton: Defeating a messianic mass movement (or jihad) does wonders for discrediting the ideology. Bring down the jihadi regimes and jihadi doctrine will lose much of its appeal.
But the war against evil will never end in this world.
You’ll never arrive to your destination if you don’t know where it is. And this exactly where USA is going, nowhere. Until we identify the enemy and called for what it is we will never going to win the war. We didn’t win the cold war Until Regan called the USSR the evil empire. Now It’s time to call the enemy for what it is Islamo Fascism or 21th century’s evil ideology. Since there are major division within Islam we should let them destroy each other. Unfortunately the guy in the WH has more in common with the enemy than the American people
I’d like to believe that, but the so-called “moderates” in the Muslim world believe that Jews control the media, world finance, that the Holocaust was a myth/wild exaggeration, and are responsible for all the evil in the world, not to mention the illegitimacy of the Jewish state. There is no equivalent of the Pope to denounce theses bromides or the words in the Koran that call for death and/or dhimmitude to Jews and infidels.
Extremism is one thing (and even then, if only 1% of Muslims are in that category, that’s still 10 million people!), but when Al Jazeera produces the mini-series of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and presents it as a docu-drama to an audience as large as any watching the Super Bowl, we have got trouble in River City.
As always, I appreciate your thoughts and writings on these subjects.
The entire question always revolves around is it 1) Islamism or is it 2) Islam? Dr. Ledeen and most other neo-cons (I don’t know whether Michael belongs or not in his own eyes, but it’s a convenient term) clearly believe the issue is Islamism, not Islam. PJM’s boss Roger Simon is clearly on board with this. Looking at Gaza and Hamas nearly from my window (or 80 miles away), this all seems purely insane. The US (Bush) did in fact empower ‘Palestinian democracy’ once Sharon pulled Israel out of Gaza (big error). Hamas is the result. Anyone pointing to the combination of Iraq and Afghanistan as proof of the success of the Bush Doctrine (at least as it relates to spreading democracy to puncture ‘Islamism’) can offer at best mixed evidence.
Over the last weeks, watching Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, Bahrain and Syria, the only clear conclusions that I can make (my view) is that 1) nobody can tell what will happen, 2) the MB types seem to be winning. That is also evident in the ratcheting up of Hamas attacks on the Israeli heartland, which is causing considerable stress here. The Egyptian ‘father’ in the form of Mubarak (to scold the Hamas and restrain them) is gone. Instead, there is this Tantawi regime, with Qaradawi and the Brotherhood.
No, this is a case of Americans just taking concepts and realities which ‘somewhat’ describe domestic American political culture and American culture in general, then attempting to apply them to the ME. While oil and energy dependence drive the compulsion along with a variation of the Reagan and Bush Doctrines. It’s all very unsettling.
so it’s just oil and energy, and both Islam and Islamism are beside the point?
I can’t link to your comment, Michael. No, it’s not just oil. I highlighted the role of what I would call Liberal Neoconism and the Reagan-Bush doctrines. I think it was fairly clear what I was saying. And that is that the prevailing ideological or interpretive view that guide you, Simon, Perle, Pipes and many others is that the problem is ‘Islamism.’
If oil were none of it, then it would be easier to highlight the choice made in the definition of the problem – Islamism rather than Islam. But certainly oil is part of the urge to be in the ME (or the need), and it helps drive tactical interventions that assume that Islamism exists, and that Islam is essentially benign as a force in the region and the world.
I would sincerely like to hear your response, Michael.
Silicon Larry: I don’t believe you Larry. If you wanted to hear my response you would have read it by now. I’ve written it at considerable length three times in three books: “The War Against the Terror Masters,” “The Iranian Time Bomb,” and “Accomplice to Evil.” But you don’t seem to have tried that. You want me to do it again.
It is my belief (and please correct me if I am wrong) that there is a prevalent misconception about the school of thought that has become known as neo conservatism. There is a pronounced difference between them and traditional Tory conservatives. The latter has been the breeding ground for elitism, either geneolgical, imperial and/or financial while neo conservatism, from what I understand, is primarily focused on human freedom and equality, both anathema to elitism. So, it is perfectly natural for those who started their political life on the left to emerge as today’s neo conservatives if they are intellectually honest realizing that what was sold to them in their youth as a bill of goods for freedom and equality was nothing but elitism with a hidden agenda. Once this eureka moment happens the honest ones will, of course, see the light. Now I do not know if Dr. Ledeen also started on this journey from the left. I am assuming he may have as many of the Tovarishi Pomonisti did (again, correct me if I am wrong). After all, it is the Harvard of the West Coast, no? So, to see him on the right is as natural to me as seeing Ariana Huffington move to the extreme left. One started life pining for equality and freedom and steadfastly stayed there and the other started her political life as a snooty Cantabrian Tory conservative and steadfastly stayed there as well. I do go on and on, don’t I?
it’s just another stereotype, used to avoid coming to grips with serious ideas. I’m not sure I ever made such a journey, and I constantly marvel that those of us who have always supported democratic revolution have come to be called “conservatives,” neo or other. ridiculous.
I don’t think the situation is as binary as Enemies-vs-Us. After all, THEY define themselves as ‘Us’..and consider the West as their enemies. And they seek to impose their world view on the West. So, to consider that history is merely a process of The Biggest War Force ignores that our human species lives within societal organizational structures.
These are not ideologies; they are basic interactive structures that outline how a population exists. They are therefore: (1) the economic structure that sets up how wealth/sustenance is prodocued. And (2) the political structure that empowers the wealth producers; and (3) the legal structure that validates both.
The ME has existed within a particular economic and political mode for centuries. Economically, it is socialist redistributive; that means that the state is the wealth producer and redistributes the wealth. Politically, of course this wealth producing set (the dictators, the hereditary kings) is given power.
The problem is that the populations of the ME have exponentially increased beyond the carrying capacity of such a two-class structure. It has to move to a different means of wealth production; a private capitalist economy run by a middle class of individual entrepreneurs. And this means that this class must be politically empowered by a constitutional democracy. With the civic legal model.
So, it isn’t ‘our civilization’ that we want to impose. The West, because of its own population explosion in the late middle ages, was forced into this transition much earlier. The Middle East, due to its ecology (deserts) remained with low populations until oil was discovered…which enabled a larger population to develop.
This type of infrastructure – a middle class with a capitalist economy and a constitutional democracy is not ‘our choice’; it is not the choice of the Middle East. It’s a NATURAL method of organization for very, very large populations. No choice.
It’s not easy to move out of one infrastructure to the next; it’s a tectonic shift. Our task, as globally networked, has to be to enable the emerging freedoms, individualism and democracies – for the old ruler will try to remain in power.
With all due respect, M. Sefton,
I sympathize with your desire for a peaceful, long-term solution, but feel somewhat differently. First things first! We need to close and secure our borders; deport all the known thugs already here and relentlessly weed and throw out those presently unknown; immediately stop every Mother-loving penny of honest American wage earners’ dollars from going out of here to any country in the Middle East (except Israel) as “aid,” and spend it here at home on desperately needed job creation, commercial and scientific R & D, infrastructure remediation, and state of the art missile defense and other weaponry; become COMPLETELY energy independent; and pay off the flipping deficit. After we’ve done all that, who gives a damn what these people do???!!! I’ll bet folding money they’d all pipe down real fast over.
“…over THERE.” Getting way too fired up here!
Agreed to all of what you say. But, whether we like it or not, we’re in a shooting war and have been for at least 20 years (and in fact, the last 1,300). The insanity you described was going on when the Twin Towers came down, so all these things have to happen at once.
You will not be able to defeat over a billion people, change their culture…and other fantasies, US is not omnipotent. It is unwise to turn this into a civilizational conflict. It is not. It is about tyranny first and foremost.
Simply and on principle advocate the right ideas, support the right people and have a citizenry willing to fight at the right moment for the right reasons, Americans must be indotrinated and motivated with the right ideas. History will do the rest.
For now though Iranian democrats should firmly distance themeselves from the US.
The occupation of Bahrain and US tacit approval for it, will make any support for or from US damaging by unfolding events.
The answer is simple and ever before us-
Unqualified support for Jewish sovereignty on every inch of The Land of Israel.
‘That war extends from Somalia to the Persian Gulf, from Sudan into Egypt, and thence to Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey, and across North Africa.’
Not forgetting Dearborn, Bradford, Marsailles , Malmo, Berlin and yes, even once sacrosanct Florence, all impregnated by Allah’s warriors and just itching to show us infidel that wherever Islam reaches, Islam conquers.
And on this day, March 23 in 1997, it reached to the top of the Empire State Building.
Libya is a waste of time, effort, money, and military resources. The real country we should be focusing on is, was, and always should be Iran. You achieve regime change in Iran and most of the major problems in the Middle East are solved, at least for the time being. Hamas and Hezbollah would be starved for cash and weapons, Syria would be isolated and possibly would fall, and the insurgents in both Afghanistan and Iraq would lose all of their money, weapons, and supplies. And let’s not even talk about how it would help the security of Israel if Iran’s mullahs were taken down. It would be a major win for the United States and the West, but instead we’re messing around with some tin horn dictator in a country that is mostly known for oil and sand.
But, hey, folks, according to Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts this past weekend on TV, this really isn’t a war we’re fighting in Libya, it’s a “humanitarian mission.” Sure, just like the Korean War was a “police action.” Just shows you what happens when a president has no clue about foreign policy, let alone a vision on how to influence the “bigger picture” in certain parts of the world, like the Middle East.
The time may come when the United States should go to war to liberate Iran, but that time is not now, not with a gross incompetent in charge and the country heavily in debt.
Terry Gain: it’s not up to us, the war has been on for thirty years.
Michael
It’s irresponsible to urge the country to go to war without a leader.
Terry Gain: It’s not up to me, we are at war and have been for many years. For the most part, the American people are at the mall, and the soldiers are fighting the war, I am just trying to get us to design and adopt a winning strategy.
Michael
I appreciate the need to for a winning strategy. I appreciate that Iran is the greatest threat to peace. I am a hawk. Obama cannot possibly play a role in a winning strategy. Going to war with Barack Hussein Obama as CIC is a prescription for disaster. He is either on the side of the Muslims or is a complete idiot. Please remember that he wanted to concede Iraq to al Qaeda and Iran. He opposed The Surge and said it would make matters worse and he claimed The Surge wasn’t working when we all knew it was. He is not qualified to be CIC.
yes, Terry, agreed. but he’s the only president we’ve got, so the best we citizens can do is try to convince him, his associates, and our elected representatives…
Mr. Ledeen,
I really appreciate your continuing engagement with all of us and the pains you are taking to clarify your position, this last response of yours being the most important for me:
“yes, Terry, agreed. but he’s the only president we’ve got, so the best we citizens can do is try to convince him, his associates, and our elected representatives…”
When I initially read your article, I was struck by what I can only call the dignity and forbearance of your approach, while simultaneously feeling like it was déjà vu all over again/I had fallen through a time warp, because (with respect) it seemed so anachronistic: the Iranian people have already tried taking to the streets, Obama did nothing, the leaders were slaughtered or imprisoned, the regime is even more repressive than before….case closed. But apparently you don’t think so? I am wondering, do you think the Iranian people will actually try this again any time soon, i.e., before an administration change in the US? And if so, do you really think if they were to do it again, Obama would then provide the substantive, game-changing support he was unwilling to give before, and if so, what would motivate him to make such a sea change (as opposed to the Potempkin rhetoric sigfnifying not just nothing, but actually the exact opposite firmly held beliefs we’ve seen from him to date when a tsunami of public opinion finally gets his attention). I guess I don’t see him as growing via OJT so much as maintaining an iron grip on the agenda he came to power with, which he was at great pains to disguise.
Christine: I’m not optimistic at all, I don’t expect him to change. But he could. Life is full of surprises. And if he does change, that’s the best outcome IMHO. So I”m trying. And I am most grateful–very very–for your very kind words.
Oh, splendid, Dr. Ledeen. Good on you for your candor, and for exercising leadership this way! It means much more knowing you are CHOOSING hope, something I think is vitally important these days but which I struggle with more than I would wish.
Thanks Lady. Kierkegaard once said “for the act of resignation, faith is not required.” Those who give up just don’t believe in the importance of the mission. I don’t choose to have hope–I choose to keep fighting, and I hope to win. The Cold War seemed hopelessly lost during the Carter years, and yet…
Thank you for the very important distinction! I’m even more inspired to work harder keeping my end up!
I think Iranian democrats should firmly distance themselves from the United States given Saudi invasion of Bahrain and tacit Western support for it. They will be blamed and never forgiven if the destabilization of Iran leads to another Arab assault on Iran.
The initial steps in destabilizing Shah in 78-79 was taken by them, and it led to Iraq attack backed by Saudi money which paved the way for Islamist take over of Iran. I am looking at the spectrum of reaction to the invasion and suppression of all opposition in Bahrain; From Obama on the left to the author of these blogs, it covers a good range and there is support for that invasion.
Saudis see Iran itself as biggest strategic threat to their power (A strong democratic Iran would have responded with military force to the invasion of Bahrain, Shah might have and even now, this weak regime might end up in a war with Saudi regime) US might support the Arab regimes again as it did in 80s; I was really hoping things might have changed, but they have not. Iranian democrats cannot afford any association with US given these circumstances. It is political suicide if things escalate; they will be blamed for collaboration with enemies of Iran. No way we can let that happen. The green movement should carefully calculate the situation and avoid the errors of the past.
I truly appreciate it when political correctness goes out the window and we can cut to the chase. It is refreshing.
The only issue I have with calling Obama a wimp is that he’s more than that – he’s more of an uber-wimp and in being so, he is inviting disaster to our doorstep.
RJE
uber wimp. So how did this uber wimp make it to POTUS. The last time a bunch of useless hippie types came together to vote in a presidential election was when we got one term Carter. Now the useless hippie types that put Jimuh in office are running our government. With the uber wimp we get Dirty Chicago types running the government also(cszars). The combination of these two gives us American Dementia. We are getting past Shame on you America, it is time to weep. If not for yourself then for your children.
Voting is very important to this country and voters should be scanned just for the legality of their vote. I live in Mississipp and I definately know about voter fraud. And it ain’t Mexicans.
The fish rots from the head down.
To kill the snake, you must cut off the head.
Statement one refers to the USA, as led by Obama, who was chosen by the American people. What’s that stinky odor in D.C.?
Why, it came from—all across America!
Picture it—a majority of rotten, verily fat and fat headed sick citizens, from places like liberal Portland, Oregon, smugly positive in their “disease”, actively sending their offal to Washington, D.C., and other political environs, via FREE VOTES.
And, D.C., itself, a sucking cesspool of longstanding, eagerly attracting such nihilistic emanations from afar.
What a PUSH-PULL!
Outside America, myriad “countries” are controlled by snakes like Gaddafi, who’ve managed to bite their way to close to absolute power. (Of course, there are the enemies within America, as well, as dumbed down citizens have taken their shots and come up snake eyes, by and nihilistically LARGE.)
So, the rotting fish, America, with head Obama, in the battle du jour, takes on the snake of Libya.
Who could, logically, expect the rotten fish head to even TRY to cut off the snake head?
Opportunity is knocking, and we hear you, but you can’t come in!
Just as I long ago understood the scam that is global warming, and all “green” revolutions cum socialistic endeavors, likewise it is getting SO OLD to have to wallow in ongoing stupidity about the snake Islam!
Someday, if maybe America survives, the majority of its citizens will then be in agreement about SNAKES circa 2011, just as we are now about Chamberlain and Hitler in Munich.
The clearest way, perhaps, to NOW be in such truth, is to recognize that we are living through a series of “Munich” events. How else can we see Obama’s “treaty” with Iran, following the 2009 uprising there against their stolen “elections”?
Yes—one TRULY need not give any more attention to the “Earth is flat” global warming scam—
AND, all you need to know about the Islamic SNAKE is that unless the HEAD of Iran is attacked, and eventually severed, Libya et al are just distracting details. Of course, Saudi Arabia must, in its turn, with its Wahabbi “schools”, be cut off, as well.
All the rest are minor details, in the big picture.
As Jesus, and all God Realized humans might say—
Come slowly, or come quickly, but SURELY come to Me.
PS—consider the following quote from “The Politics of Experience”, by R.D. Laing, a British psychiatrist, written in 1967:
“Man, most fundamentally, is not engaged in the discovery of what is there, nor in production, nor even in communication, nor in invention. He is enabling being to emerge from nonbeing.
…..
There are men who feel called upon to generate even themselves out of nothing, since their underlying feeling is that they have not been adequately created or have been created only for destruction.” Pages 42-43
That last sentence seems to me to perfectly encapsulate the essence of the top MEN of Islam—-they are most definitely NOT adequately created, and ARE destruction, animated:
Shiva = the Destroyer.
Dr Ledeen’s analysis is accurate as far as it goes, but there is a greater complexity that he has not addressed. The larger war has another set of players–the Salafist alliance of the Saudi Wahabis, the Pakistanis, Al Qaida and Muslim Brotherhood. This alliance is every bit as much our enemy as the Iranian regime and its dependents–in fact it is sgainst this alliance, or it least some of its components, that we are actively fighting now in Iraq, Afghanistan, & elsewhere. They are enemies of the Shiite Iranians, even though fully capable of cooperating with them against their common enemy (us). Their strategy differs, and the nature of their threat and their strengths and weaknesses also differ from those of the Iranians. Strategy, at a deeper level, would seek to play both our enemies against each other and to weaken their cooperaton against us. We can’t deal with either in isolation.
Until Congress repeals “50 U.S.C. §§ 1541-1548 (the “WPR”)”, Congress has sanctioned Obama’s actions so far. Ghadaffi, and his regime, are a big reason this Congressional Action was passed.
They may be giving him powers they do not agree with, but, they still have given him permission to act as he sees fit.
And we all know Obama does not think he is bound by the Constitution, or Congress anyway.
He has stated:
He thinks that, since the Constitution only applies itself to “negative liberties”, that his actions are considered “positive liberties”, and therefore, beyond Constitutional constraint.
He also knows that he has faithful, blind support in high levels of our Government, and any actions would bog down in chaos in the Supreme Court, Congress, and Federal Appellate Courts.
Obama’s expertise is in Community DIS-Organization. And he’s performing up to par for his abilities.
P.S.
Obama, always the petulant juvenile, is plainly showing all other world dictators that he has more powerful toys in his toy box.
The problem is, if Gadaffi is the less worse option, then things are truly bad. We really do not know who the rebels are, what they want etc. But we do know who Gadaffi is, and he has US blood on his hands. I don’t mind seeing his remains scattered about a crater.
A few questions:
1) The Egyptian military is in charge. They are, so far, secular. Would they intervene right next door to ensure that radical Muslim elements in Libya don’t take over? I’m sure Egypt doesn’t want a destabilized state right on its border.
2) What are we to make of all these uprisings? Are they truly democratic or are they AQ in disguise? It may well be that there are radical Muslim roots to uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya. But then how to explain uprisings in Iran? You’ve already got a fundamentalist Muslim regime there (and if its leaders are truly apocalyptic, that’s even worse) so I doubt the Muslim Brotherhood is stirring things up there. So why would the Iranian uprising tilt towards the west while the Arab ones tilt the other way?
3) Syria. The elder Assad, when he was last challenged, wiped out an entire town. Why is the younger one not brutally putting down the demonstrations? And as with Iran, what is the nature of these protests. This Assad seems to be a secular fascist, albeit in a Muslim culture. Yet he teams up with religious fascists in Iran. They do have a common enemy in America, but a common enemy does not make for a long time alliance. Just look to the US-USSR “alliance” to defeat Germany. That went south right after the war.
Just give Junior Assad time, man. The security services killed at least one hundred people in southern Syria yesterday alone. They are warming up.
Meanwhile, off court in the DNC warroom, the Obama spin-doctors are March madly working up an amazing pile of excuses for their AWOL commander. Anyone for covering the boss’s rumpus for: no budget, health care, an undeclared war, no domestic offshore drilling, gas prices, and the fog of basketball picks?
I had always thought to date that the Clinton Administration was the most cynical, intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt group that ever occupied the White House.
But the Obama bunch beats the Clintons by a far piece.
We have a lot of rebuilding to do, both financially and ethically once we are rid of this poseur.
SHORT AND SWEET WE ARE STUCK W A LOSER PRESIDENT. NO GUTS, NO COURAGE. IT IS SAD WE DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHO HE IS. HE PARACHUTES IN FROM WHERE WE DO NOT KNOW AND HAS ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING IN LIFE BY HIMSELF. NOW WE EXPECT HIM TO BE UP TO SPEED. WE HAVE AN INCOMPETENT. SHREWD, DEVIOUS, AND A LIAR BUT NOT A LOVER OF USA. HOPE WE SURVIVE HIM!!
Love all these comments. Please America, it is time to wake up and see what your own countrymen are doing to this great nation. Come together and wake up this Giant Beast that is America. Take back your country, take back your government for the people. What is happening here is not what America is. it is an Ideology that most people don’t even understand.
Jean-Luc Picard had it right in Star Trek so many years ago, “History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well-intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.”
The region you discuss “…from Somalia to the Persian Gulf, from Sudan into Egypt, and thence to Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey, and across North Africa, except for Israel have not had nor appeared to want ‘democracy’ in thousands of years.
Are you so sure it is ‘democracy’ they want? I am not and I fear terribly the unintended consequences of our interference – well intentioned or self serving.
G. Hugh Bodell
Michael, I offer this to you and the cogent contributors: What does Khatami, Ahmadinezhad, Boy Assad, and that crowd accept what Obama, et al., refuse to countenance.
This isn’t a case of the story of the blind men of Hindustan who wound up arguing amongst themselves because each only had part of the story as to what
an elephant is. At least, I don’t think it is the case, but I have been wrong before.
In a world that seems more confusing by the day, the ability to clearly delineate between good and evil has began to blur. Perhaps no time in American history, when it needed it most, has the U.S. had such a dearth of leadership. Obama has been even more ineffective and incapable that anyone dreamed, and his loyalties to America are suspect. I don’t see his political adversaries as much better. We’ve witnessed almost 6,000 men pay the ultimate price, with three times as many wounded, trying to stabilize and bring peace to the Islamic world. Once again, the U.N. has proven feckless. Why the United States remains in that corrupt cesspool and finances almost a quarter of it remains to me a mystery.
Perhaps it was a noble pursuit as I still believe in the goodness of America – but our well intention attempts have failed, and they have failed because we don’t understand our enemy. Isn’t it time to admit that our only strategic interests in Asia and Africa is the underlying current of our fear of running out of oil, and that short of Israel there is nothing worthy of our blood and sacrifice? I remain convinced Israel is our only true friend in the Middle East, but our relationship toward Israel vacillates between indifference and convenient ally. Can they trust us? I don’t know.
Not sure what the answer is, but I am convinced of this. We are at least 50 years overdue in establishing an independent energy policy, freeing ourselves from the shackles of Saudi Arabia. We can no longer afford to play the global peacemaker and we are foolish to sell our enemies our own weapons of war for a quick buck. I fully expect the day that our weapons will be aimed right back at us.
Islam will fail, as its tenets contrary to free will and liberty – it is an anathema to anything Holy and we should prepare ourselves to protect us from its evil. Nothing good will come from allowing Islam to establish roots on our soil and not protecting our porous borders. In our acquiescence, equivocation and political correctness, we worry far too much what our enemies think of us, as we have become cowardly in speaking truth. We our slowly destroying ourselves.
It is time for a new paradigm with respect to the Middle East. We need clear thinking now more than ever. And I fear for my country – because we collectively have lost our first love. If America is to be saved, it won’t start in Washington.
Tex, You and your loved ones have nothing to fear.
We are going to see more and more turmoil in the world but the Almighty will not fail to keep His promises.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2011/2/0210_02.html
The Psalm for the day the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan-
” A psalm by David. Render to the Lord, children of the mighty, render to the Lord honor and strength. 2. Render to the Lord the honor due to His Name; bow down to the Lord in resplendent holiness. 3. The voice of the Lord is over the waters, the God of glory thunders; the Lord is over mighty waters. 4. The voice of the Lord resounds with might; the voice of the Lord resounds with majesty. 5. The voice of the Lord breaks cedars; the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon. 6. He makes them leap like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7. The voice of the Lord strikes flames of fire. 8. The voice of the Lord makes the desert tremble; the Lord causes the desert of Kadesh to tremble. 9. The voice of the Lord causes the does to calve, and strips the forests bare; and in His Sanctuary all proclaim His glory. 10. The Lord sat [as King] at the Flood; the Lord will sit as King forever. 11. The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.”
MBY
Coming to the president’s defense, Howard Dean just said, “We have an interest in Libya.” Really? I have an interest in toilet bowls, but I’m not interested in cleaning up other people’s s…. Now that’s what I call clarity of mission. I noticed that Howard managed to avoid toilet bowl duty with a doctor’s note and spent the Vietnam War skiing powder and humping the girls with a draft exemption for a bad back–now there’s some clarity. Faster please!
I apologize for repeating what others have already said:
the internationalist subversives see the war of the islamic supremacists against the West in general and America in particular as an
“anti-imperialist” movement.
They will never fight against the mad mullahs or the regime in Syria.
We have to do with an ideology that has degenerated into psychosis.
The only thing we can do is keep the public informed, win the elections in 2012, and hope that in this next year and a half the strategic damages will not be too serious (the damages are already serious, but the Stuxnet virus maybe bought us some time.)
Our present govt. is safest doing nothing, even when nothing is a bad idea. If it can go wrong, this bunch will get it the wrongest possible way. Reason, information, strategy – all are beside the point with this crew.
But they won’t do nothing, they are a train wreck in progress, with all the weight of inertia at their backs. Borrowing money to pay for bombs for a military action on an idealist whim – like children playing a video game. I put more thought into running my bread machine, at least I decide what kind of bread I want, and check that I have the ingredients.
And yes, we elected them. Have you ever ridden a runaway horse? You can’t control him, you can’t jump off, all you can do is hang on for your life and pray.
Dear Mr. Ledeen, do you have any pull or connections wherein a no-fly zone could be concocted over the general vicinity of the Nobel Prize Committee until Barak Obama is compelled to renounce his ‘peace’ prize on some kind of pay-per-view special? Of course, by ‘no fly zone’ I mean ninja assassins.
I realize Obama is in fact doing this on news services across the globe but admissions are more fun than that de facto thingy and we seem to have a problem with language recently to the point where my 2 year old nephew yesterday referred to his own stool as a ‘no-fly zone’.
Three valkyries or three weird sisters? “Double, double, toil and trouble …(with double, double as a reference to the deficit)”.
I like it! double, double…
‘Uh’bama is the 2nd biggest incompetent to be in the WH. #1 is the American people who voted for the guy.
Fear your neighbor’s naivete.
Michael,
This morning I asked an ‘informed’ friend “when are we going to start rounding up the Ayatollas and Mullahs? His response was “ask Hillary.”
Sean
Mr. Ledeen: The crucial battlefield is not in Damascus or anywhere else in the middle East;it’s right here in the US,where uncontrolled Islamic immigration , will eventually foment an insurgency which will destroy the country .
Our souls just like the old days hey Lt Col, when you have the head of church on side, last rites for a KGB Lt Col delivered by a KGB puppet.
Correction: The Wimp Goes to Rio to Go to War.
Obama is NOT so uniquely different from many post WWII presidencies. Several congress’ and presidencies have ignored the constitution and instead used the UN to intervene militarily into foreign soverign nations that posed no [direct or immminent] threats to the United States. In fact, the U.S. began intervening into the affairs of Indochina/Vietnam in 1941-42 before the UN.
Post WWII, the U.S. has virtually never stopped these kinds of actions to include military uses around the world…some known and some still classified. Of all these kinds of actions Post WWII, NONE of them have come to the [final] chapter all these years later. North Korea lingers on as does Iran and the Middle East.
We would have been the better leader of the world to have put our constitution and all that it means first and foremost. The UN is a cancer on the world! We didn’t need the UN to provide our great charity to nations in need nor be a example to the world. But, we allowed ourselves to be a pawn of the UN and look at the world today…and the U.S.
Michael! Thanks for great article. I love such outspoken articles. Title is wonderful!
However, I would like to tell the enemies of freedom and the enemies of America of the wimps in Washington, whether if they are in Congress or in the Black House or elsewhere! Americans are the ruling race of the world that is since the time of the great founders of Great America. Americans should not repudiate or escape from their moral duty and the mission of their white race to lead in the regeneration of the dark world. As a great nation, your world duties to plant the American flag in bloody and benighted and backward places, because wherever the American flag planted, it is a great; it is a beautiful and bright…your moral world duties as trustees of the world’s progress and guardians of its security and its peace to spreading freedom and to defend the right of oppressed people’s life. This is your moral duty; this is your divine mission; this is the divine mission of the Benevolent Nation (USA). So, your real enemy is in Tehran, per se the enemy of civilized free world, and both regimes “Syrian and Iranian” are the biggest threat on International Security…without them the world will become happier and safer, this is in addition to the great supporter and the giant financier of Islamic-fascism around the world “the Saudi Wahhabi regime”.
Jassem Othman – Syrian dissident
Jassem, I really think you are sincere but your post comes close to satire. “…mission of their white race to lead in the regeneration of the dark world.” First off we will cease to be a “white race” nation soon; Hispanics will become the new majority. Most Americans, white and otherwise, would take exception to that phrase. While we continue to be the most charitable nation in the world when it comes to individual efforts to better the people of countries worse off than we are many Americans don’t think it is good policy to have our government in the business of passing out taxpayer cash to despots or spilling American blood to overthrow tyrants unless there is a sound security concern or threat to our nation. Iran si, Libya no.
Thank you, Michael Ledeen…..
I’ve been repeating myself in these blogs here at every opportunity with the same idea.
Contain those belligerent Islamic Countries, isolate them financially. Trouble is, some of our allies have pre-existing entangling arrangements with them that prevent this. Then we Americans will be/are expected to send replenishing “AID” all over the place.
This time around though, we’ve run out of our usual bales of green cash to disperse so widely, we need it here at home. Badly.
thank you ,thank your post!
The No-Fly zone is purported to cost 1 billion dollars .Ok fine and the money comes from where ?? China?? We’re broke and we decide to become a player in the middle east again.. We are looking Like a cat surrounded by a pack of dogs…Maybe Fearless Leader thinks this is community organizing, yes!
I say impeach the idiot if one American dies because if this fiasco, better yet do it now and take our chances with Biden… It couldn’t be any worse…
Having a quick read over this, do not have all the time in the world…we must keep our powder dry…do not forget that the UK and France have committed themselves with us, and this is very helpful, as the use of our brute power will only breed contempt. You do identify the most serious enemies we have in the middle east, Syria and Iran. We must prepare ourselves for this confrontation, but let us go easy…Qaddafi is an old enemy who had blood on his hands, we have done the right thing to help an oppressed people seeking their freedom, and our reticence to act has hugely enhanced our ability to influence other sitations in the Middle East.
@Rancher! Thank you for your kind words. these words came out of a generous man with a BIG CONSCIENCE. Yes, this is the destiny of the white race to lead in the regeneration of the dark world. In fact, the human race is indebted for the Western white and also for Jews. ..Yes I am very sincere and loyal “unfortunately” but the sad thing and painful is still there who do not trust this fidelity and honesty!?! Indeed there is no worst of this sense…no doubt that fools and idiots today who really are most lucky…Dear Rancher; I never waver in my commitment to speak truth. I never waver of criticizing my terrible sick world and I am proud of telling the truth. For example here in this unlucky country (Poland) it’s hard to find a realist Pole who will recognizing in his horrible crimes against Jews during and after the war II. No, never, you will never hear facts by any Pole, rather they still blame Jews on their problems despite them (Poles) who were robbed and massacred Jews.
Mr. Rancher, my heart bleeds for those American soldiers who sacrificing their blood for people freedoms. In reality the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims do not deserve that sacrifice, they deserve not more than hell. Might you do not believe if I tell you about my the range of my hatred to my self as “Arab”, but this is my ominous destiny, this is my cursed fate, which made me like the lonely finger in this fu…cking brutal world. I just wonder, is there God in this world for complain to him? Surely (NO) the existence of God merely a superstition!!! If he existed, certainly He is the biggest unjust thug in this universe. Sorry for poor English.
I agree completely with Michael Ledeen that Iran and Syria are by far the most important battlefields in our overall struggle with Islam, and that Libya, while important (especially since we’ve involved ourselves) is nevertheless very secondary.
Here’s my question, which came to mind after the popular eruptions across the Arab world started two months ago(and I don’t claim to have seen them coming):
Should we be telling the demonstrators and protesters(assuming that many of them are NOT members of the Muslim Brotherhood), “You may have to face the fact that you can choose Modernity and to fight for several freedoms like free speech, freedom of assembly, and a vote for a democratic type of government and genuine elections, OR you can choose to remain loyal to Islam. But you can’t have both.”
I am less certain when, how, or whether this should be said, but I am quite certain that it is the truth. If these rebellions and protests ultimately fail, and all these countries, especially Iran and Syria, sink back into sullen tyrannies at home, and dangerous adventurist, terrorist polices abroad, I think it will be because we and they failed to recognize that Islam, with its HATE EDUCATION in opposition to all the essential elements of political and economic modernity, is the essential root cause of their problems.