Obeisance weakest of all

In his letter, “Pen mightier than the sword” (April 18 in several Inland papers), the writer, Peter, tries to make the case that the current Progressive Socialist administration has magically saved the Middle East and the world. Ignoring Obama’s deep bows (of the elected President of the most powerful superpower in history) to the same feudal warlords now being revolted against, Peter says, “…two years after hearing [Obama’s] speech, the citizens of Egypt have overthrown their dictator of 30 years.” Also, there was “not one single soldier lost, not one single bomb dropped. Not one single dollar spent.”

Peter claims that (despite several relatively fair elections by brave, proud voters), “…neither [Iraq nor Afghanistan] has a self-sustaining democracy”. That ‘self-sustaining’ thing might have to do with the ongoing insurgency of outside Jihadist fighters. And though there were “thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis killed” in U.S. wars, at the rate that Hussein and his sociopath sons were killing civilians, nearly a million living Iraqis and neighboring peoples would be dead without Bush’s intervention. Also, Afghanistan-based Al Qaida had not been able to mount another successful attack (until the last two years) on American soil.

What Peter forgot to point out was that while Mubarak was a dictator, he was also the region’s strongest supporter of peace with Israel. He doesn’t mention that Mubarak had outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood (founders of Black September [Munich Olympic massacre], Hamas and Hesbollah [bombing Israeli civilians], Islamic Jihad, Taliban, Iran’s Ayatollahs, Al Qaida and many others). While it is probably true that most of the Egyptians that revolted were not Muslim Brotherhood, the M/B was unquestionably happy to return to open political power, in the country where it was founded in 1928.

Peter is correct in that no priceless troops or expensive ordinance have yet been expended in the current Egyptian situation - - as far as we know. However, thousands of American and other civilians have been murdered by the terrorist M/B network, and thousands of U.S. and allied troops have died and much treasure has been spent in resisting them. Mubarak is a bad guy and really needed to go, and the Egyptians, like all People, needed to be free. But it would have been far better for America to encourage a more orderly transition to moderate leadership than just leaving it to chaos and intrigue.

How was news of the Egyptian insurrection greeted by those that everyone considers bad guys? The ruling Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami announced that, "I herewith proclaim to those [Western leaders] who still do not want to see reality, that the political axis of the new Middle East will soon be Islamic rulership and democracy based on religion." These guys believe that the “Twelfth Imam” will only come and settle the score when the world is ruled by Islam, and after it has been bathed in blood (Israeli blood first). Obama ignored both popular freedom uprisings in Iran.

And let’s not forget the spreading “Middle East Spring”, or Obama’s, “New Beginning”. Libyans also wanted to shake off their tyrant, the terrorist Khadaffi. Obama said Khadaffi “has to go”, and then went on vacation. As Khadaffi’s troops and mercenaries mowed down Libyans and ground up their revolution, Obama failed to take the lead, make a plan, inform the American People, or seek the required Congressional authority for an attack. The uprising went from nearly complete to nearly wiped out. After the Arab League asked (twice) and French Premier Sarkozy (evidently the new Leader of the Free World) decreed that the U.N. (evidently the new Constitutional authority) was going in, Obama obeyed his marching orders and fell in line with the unauthorized, undefined, unplanned non-war. He calls this one a “Kinetic Military Action”.

Really?

Weeks later, Obama finally announced, “American leadership is essential” and “the United States is NOT going to deploy ground troops into Libya” but will only provide “protection for civilians”. Mission command was tossed around like a hot potato. With no definition at all, the mission has now morphed from brief no-fly zone to regime change, with attacks on ground targets, troops to train rebels and a long term, bloody civil war. With “allies” that include M/B. We are now seriously offering money and bigger weapons to the rebels. American weapons have been turned against Americans in the past; Clinton’s Stinger Missiles are still fired at us in Afghanistan.