Below is a letter sent out by local businessman Mark Dorf to his personal database that provides an insightful look into the state of the world we live in today:

 

Dear Friends,

I am taking a break at my desk from a hectic  day and doing some reflecting again.  This often times gives me “agita” and today’s no different as I am pondering the state of affairs the US (and the West) faces with Arab radicalization.  It seems that our administration is constantly trying to supply explanations and excuses for events in the post-revolution Arab states, and simply ignoring the root causes.

Such attempts at explanations only fuels the fire of radicals.  Simply put…… appeasement = empowerment and empowerment creates an emboldened enemy who believes they will prevail.

How many more Embassy attacks will it take for us to wake up and stop the appeasement.  The facts show that Arab states are increasingly being radicalized by their new found “democracy.”  Countries with new governments (Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt) and their new leaders do not challenge the domestic opinion on the street which has been negative towards America for a long time and became even more negative since the Arab Spring.

America used to be acknowledged as a champion of democracy, a defender of values, a bridge-builder between people and nations, and an example for the entire world to emulate. In the Middle East, this image of America is unfortunately quickly losing its place in the hearts of democracy lovers and peace makers of this fractured region.

I remember hearing on radio last week a comment that the White House’s policies are actually empowering Islamists.  So, that’s what I’m ruminating about right now and it makes me mad, really mad and disappointed.  Where’s our backbone, where’s our pride?

It sure seems like President Obama’s policies have made the Arab world more extreme and pushed us further apart since his reign in office.  He certainly didn’t embrace the George Bush belief that “your either with us or against us.”

But it’s certainly not just the Obama White House.  For decades now, the US like many Western nations have pandered, pampered and put up with Arab regimes atrocious behavior toward us.  Ever since the early days of Lawrence of Arabia our state department have been essentially a group of political figures living in a fantasy world creating a top heavy Arabist mind set.

One of the foremost authorities on Islam is Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel backs up my points from a recent piece he published.  The following are several of these facts he points out;

–          In April 1983 Hizb’Allah – the long arm of Iran in Lebanon – blew up the embassy of the United States, in another breach of its sovereignty, and killed 63 people, and in October of that same year demolished Marine headquarters in Beirut killing 241 American soldiers and citizens. The American reaction was to flee from Lebanon, which very much encouraged Hizb’Allah and its patrons in Iran and Syria, and caused the United States to appear as a country without a backbone. A month before this, in March of 1983, Hizb’Allah attacked the United States embassy in Kuwait, and in June, 1985 Hizb’Allah organized the hijacking of an American passenger jet of TWA. In June, 1996 Hizb’Allah carried out an attack on an American military base in Saudi Arabia, and all of these attacks carried out by Shi’ite Hizb’Allah with Iranian inspiration were left unanswered by the Americans.

–          Despite the international ban on Iran to export weapons, and on Syria to import them, Iran supplies the murderous regime in Syria with weapons, ammunition and fighters who are air-lifted over the skies of Iraq. The Americans know this and don’t do a thing.

–          Another American failure, no less important than the failure in Iraq, is the failure to stop the military nuclear program of Iran. We only need remember the Soviet missile crisis in Cuba (1962) to see the difference between then and now: Then, the determination shown by John F. Kennedy, president of the United States, caused the Soviets to fold up within two weeks, while today, the softness that the world presents – led by the United States – vis à vis Iran, has enabled the state of the Ayatollahs to progress in their military nuclear program for more than 15 years.

–          Thus, in a continual process of declining strength, the United Stated has become a paper tiger in dealing with the Arab and Islamic world. The Islamic bandits draw strength from American weakness, and it is precisely Obama’s attempts to engage the Islamists, beginning with the Cairo speech (June 2009), that increases the Islamists’ demands from him.

–          Islamic zealots sense the American weakness and increase their pressure. The Americans have adopted the culture of “political correctness” that makes them “be nice” even if the one they are dealing with is not nice at all. They enable Islamic organizations to act freely in the United States, to establish mosques almost without limitations and preach violence against the “infidel” in these places, under the right of freedom of expression, of course. People who are identified with radical Islam come and go in the White House and serve as “advisers” to the president and the secretary of state. During the past generation, the State Department has led the conciliatory and defeatist policy of the United States, which has brought the superpower of  the past to be only a paper tiger in the eyes of the Arab and Islamic world.

–          The ignorance of the administration in the eyes of the Middle East has been proven over the past three years, when more than once, people of the government issued statements such as, “The Muslim Brotherhood is mainly a secular movement”, “Iran can be persuaded by diplomatic means to stop enriching uranium”, “There is no proof of the existence of a military nuclear program in Iran” and “Islam is a religion of peace”. When the heads of the American government speak thus, the Muslim Brotherhood on the Sunni side of Islam, and the Iranians on the Shi’a side, know that they have nothing to worry about. The “Great Satan” has lost its teeth and its will to use its horns. Usama bin Laden is gone, but his ideology is alive and kicking in the hearts of far too many people, in the world in general and in the United States in particular.

–          Middle East peace is given only to those who cannot be vanquished, and freedom is given only to him who is ready to fight for it. The Middle East is no place for bleeding hearts, and especially those whose glory has passed and is no more. The Arab and Islamic world knows how to appreciate and honor only those who honor themselves, who know how to draw a clear red line and then be willing to battle anyone who desires to harm them, to go to battle in order to guard the freedom of their region and their global glory.

I firmly believe that a policy of appeasement” will never keep “radical Islamism” from spreading throughout the Middle East.  Consider the mess we were in under President Carter’s management of the Iranian hostage crisis in the 70’s.  It took the fear the Iranians had that Ronald Reagan would bring down the wrath of the Almighty if he got into office.  It was no coincidence that the U.S. hostages left Iranian airspace the very minute that Reagan swore the oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981.
Recent US policy has been to look at what we have done wrong, and see what we can do to put it right.  This is counter to Muslim culture and only makes us look weak in their eyes.  The reality in that part of the world is that they respect power.  They detest weakness.  The US has become a toothless tiger with our constant apologies for things we shouldn’t need to apologize for.

The consequences of the U.S. failure to understand the basics of Muslim culture is becoming deadly to America.  The Muslim world believes America is weak, and America can be defeated.  This is a VERY dangerous position to be in as it is when an enemy thinks you are weak is when they will attack.

If you look at the new U.S. policy towards the Muslim Brotherhood, it has not gained us support of the Islamists, despite the Obama administration’s attempt to placate the enemies of democracy at the cost of abandoning its traditional liberal friends.

We empower the Islamists when American leaders apologize to terrorists who attack us.  For example, the recent crisis with the film that was made by Coptic living in America and financed by family living in Egypt; it seems like we are acknowledging that America itself was guilty of the creation of the film.  America’s apologies did not help. The fire spread all over the Arab/Muslim world.

Instead of making apologetic speeches by mid-level officials, I would have liked to have seen our President speak out to all news media stating that while we can deplore the actions that the filmmakers made by making the film, our constitution provides that opportunity.  It is not endorsed by the American people and government.  And then lay down the hammer, that murdering our citizens will have harsh consequences diplomatically, economically and even militarily.  Under settled principles of international law, attacks on diplomats by, or permitted by, governments can be considered acts of war.

We should make it clear that America rewards our friends and punishes our enemies. 

Instead, Muslim rioters get cajoled. And that’s absolutely crazy. If these people are going to hate us (which they do), we need to just accept that fact and stand up for what we believe, without apology.  The facts have shown that radical Islamists hatred for the United States will never abate because of their rejection of many American values that are felt to be inimical to those of radical Islamists.

The same Muslim society that turns violent whenever its holy figures are disparaged, revels in the horrific portrayals of Jews and Judaism in Arab media.  Arab and Muslim movies and television shows contain hateful anti-Semitic motifs, endorsed by respected Muslim academics, that the Muslim viewer “eats up” enthusiastically.  Even their curriculum for young students.

Michael J. Totten at the Gladstone Institute wrote that, Something offensive to Muslims (along with something offensive to just about everyone else in the world) is posted on the Internet several times every second, yet massive international uprisings break out only periodically. What we saw last week was a raw play for political power by radical Salafists. By ginning up an anti-American mob and forcing President Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member, to send riot police after the demonstrators to protect the American Embassy, the Salafists were able to make him look like a tool of the West.  Salafist preachers ginned up a similar mob in Tunisia.

Look at Egypt today.  It’s in shambles.  A broken military leadership, rampant economic ruin continually worsening.  They need help.  We can help them, but why should we since they are not acting like an ally or a friend.  Members of Congress are publicly questioning whether the Egyptian government deserves any more aid. This question is an excellent start. We certainly should make it clear to Morsi that we can make his job and his life a lot more difficult than the Salafists can.

We need to be prepared to pull the plug on our aid to Egypt.  Contrary to concerns that if we did that, they’ll get aid from Iran or Russia, then let them do so.  Interestingly, those countries are not providing Egypt with any economic solace in the first place.   Why not?  We all know that Sunni’s and Shia have a huge animosity and hatred towards each other.  The Muslim Brotherhood has been quoted stating that Shia’s are worse for Islam than Jews!  Our providing aid to them is not benefitting us at this time anyway.  Given our own deficit we are struggling with, let some other countries bleed money.

Let’s take a look at how our actions have affected our relationship with our only true ally in the Middle East, Israel.  Remember Barack Obama the campaigner.  Prior to his winning the Presidency his words were promising to friends of Israel.  Unfortunately, his actions as president have been alarming and damaging to a relationship of trust between our two democracies.

I recognize there are altering opinions about if Obama has been good or bad for Israel.  His supporters will say that he has continued to financially support Israel.  That is true.  For example beyond the $3 billion in annual military assistance to Israel that the president requests and that Congress routinely approves as president, he responded by providing full financing and technical assistance for Israel’s Iron Dome short-range anti-rocket defense system.  And it should be noted that he has increased aid to Israel and given it access to the most advanced military equipment, including the latest fighter aircraft.  But, keep in mind these requests are supported and approved by Congress.  I’m not sure Obama really could have not acted as he did.

Obama singles out Israel for condemnation over and over but says Israel has no better friend in the speeches he gives.  He blames Israel for the lack of peace talks but not the Palestinians who have refused to come to the table for years (more empowering with his original statements).  He says his commitments to Israel’s security is unshakeable, but he pressures Israel not to take military action against Iran.

My point here is not to question whether Obama has been good to Israel, but how his policies and commentary has empowered Islamists.  That is the point of my argument.

Our  Middle East policies are in shambles.  Obama made the statement early on in his Presidency that a president “who doesn’t look like other presidents.”   Perhaps he thought such a sentiment would endear America to Arabs.  If so, it has been proven unfounded.

So have other assumptions. Like the idea that Iran’s mullah regime would negotiate with us if we uttered soothing words and turned a cold eye on Iranian dissidents, as Obama did in June 2009.

Remember in his June 2009 “New Beginning” speech in Cairo where he said that the tension between the US and the Muslim world that “has been fed” by colonialism and the Cold War?  This was appeasement.  Perhaps if such rhetoric was spoken to a culture that is empowered by apology it would have worked.  Muslim culture is quite different and all it did was had Muslim leaders laughing at America.

He made the comment “America does not presume to know what is best for everyone.”   True enough, but we know what’s best for us, and what has happened over the past few years regarding our relationships with the Arab world has not been best for us.

Since the 9/11/12 attacks on America, Muslims have been protesting over much of the world, from Tunisia to Yemen to Bangladesh, and in some cases, have been assaulting our embassies.

The ostensible reason for the latest protests is a video produced by someone in the United States criticizing the Prophet Muhammad. But that’s obviously just a pretext, used by Islamist terrorist organizers to whip up frenzy in nations with large numbers of angry unemployed young men.

The threat of such attacks deserves a more stern response than a campaign trip to Vegas, a misstatement of settled policy and skipped intelligence briefings.

Jonathan S. Tobin wrote in Commentary Magazine that,  We don’t agree with tasteless insults aimed at Islam. But the Muslim mobs and those that rationalize their actions have no standing to gripe about anybody else’s behavior and must be bluntly told as much.    Insulting Judaism and Christianity in the Arab world is part of these countries’ mainstream discourse. Anti-Semitism is so deeply ingrained in the Muslim media that it is merely a matter of routine more than anything else. Western leaders should send a harsh message warning Arab and Muslim governments that we are aware that they don’t have clean hands on this issue. It should be made plain that monitoring Western speech about Islam is not their concern.

Instead, we apologize.

Do you notice that it is hilarious to many Americans to mock other faiths but outrageous to mock Muslims and Islam.  Why is that?  Maybe it’s because nobody has ever been harmed, much less killed, making fun of non-Muslims.

And the accusations that America is Islamaphobic.  If so, then why are America’s Muslims freer and more prosperous than Muslims in any other part of the world. Their daily lives show that the narrative about a U.S.-Islam war is a myth.

In conclusion, it’s time that we become the tiger with teeth, big, sharp and ferocious teeth.  We need to take a strong diplomatic stance.  We should tell the diplomats and representatives from these countries that there will be no more money, no more military support, no more of anything until they prove to America that they deserve the goodness of America and that they NEED actually MUST control the radical elements in their countries.

Those leaders need to take responsibility of their position in the world and stop blaming America.  These countries are taking the side of our enemies.  We need to send such a message and back it up.

That’s how I feel, how about you?