Friday, November 23, 2012

Brief Notes: Obama's Hard-Line, Conservative Foreign Policy


Mike L.

It's becoming more and more clear that the Obama administration is pursuing a hard-line, conservative foreign policy under the guise of supporting "democracy."  The truth of the matter is that, whatever one may think of Obama's domestic policies, his foreign policy bolsters and strengthens the most reactionary and conservative forces on the planet.

One cannot usher radical Islam into power throughout the Muslim Middle East and somehow still be considered "liberal."  It simply defies common sense.  Radical Islam (or "political Islam") is a deeply conservative movement in the very worst sense of that term.  The Muslim Brotherhood, which is the big daddy of radical Islam, has an historical provenance that goes, in part, to Nazi Germany.  As I have repeated any number of times in these pages it represents a political movement throughout the Muslim Middle East that is deeply misogynistic, violently homophobic, racist toward non-Muslims, and genocidal toward Jews.

No administration can work as hard as the Obama administration has to advance political Islam and still, against all reason, be considered liberal.  The Obama administration's foreign policy is not liberal, but in fact deeply conservative.

Just two days ago Hillary Clinton flew to Jerusalem for the purpose of saving Hamas from Israeli self-defense after that country endured a year of constant rocket attacks followed by days of intense bombardment making life in most of the southern half of the country unlivable.

Meanwhile both the Obama administration and Hamas thanked Egyptian president Morsi for helping to broker the arm-twisting which saved Hamas from Israeli retaliation and Hamas thanked Iran for helping to make Israel "scream with pain."

Good job, Barack Obama.

And now we learn that directly afterward, Morsi has grabbed dictatorial powers in Egypt.
Protests rock Egypt after Morsi seizes sweeping new powers 
Demonstrators storm Muslim Brotherhood HQ in Alexandria, pelt Port Said office with stones, and call for Egyptian president's ouster in Cairo after he is called "pharaoh," the new Mubarak for seizure of new powers. 
Morsi's decree exempting all his decisions from legal challenge until a new parliament was elected caused fury amongst his opponents on Friday who accused him of being the new Hosni Mubarak and hijacking the revolution... 
Buoyed by accolades from around the world for mediating a truce between Hamas and Israel, Morsi on Thursday ordered that an Islamist-dominated assembly writing the new constitution could not be dissolved by legal challenges.

Morsi, an Islamist whose roots are in the Muslim Brotherhood party, also gave himself sweeping powers that allowed him to sack the unpopular general prosecutor and opened the door for a retrial for Mubarak and his aides.
Barack Obama is not a liberal.

No liberal would support radical Islam or the Muslim Brotherhood.

Period.

3 comments:

  1. One may indeed make this argument, particularly as these conservative waves grow larger, that Obama was too accommodating. It will likely be a successor that will feel the brunt of this.

    As to Morsi, will those who think that elections mean democracy say much of anything about this power grab?

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    1. I have to say, School, this is truly one of the most strange (and sad) political moments in my lifetime.

      We've both been acutely aware for quite some time that political sands are shifting, but now I feel like they're being shaken up entirely.

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    2. This may be a necessary thing, however, to raise awareness, for those that have the capacity to be aware.

      Diana Mutz at UPenn has shown an inverse relationship between how much education people have and how frequently they talk to those with whom they disagree politically. The evidence is that the more schooling, the tighter the echo chamber becomes.

      The shaking sands themselves help to show that those in the echo chamber are out of touch. They settle into a self-affirming clique rather than develop the intellectual habit of actively seeking out challenging debate, which is why their theories so often conflict with reality.

      Thus, when Morsi the democrat becomes Morsi the Pharaoh, they are unable to respond with more than a whimper.

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