Egypt is such a far-away place. For much of my life it seemed benign enough, steeped in the most ancient of history.
Most Americans think of the Pyramids and Charlton Heston leading the
Jews out of slavery with Yul Brynner chasing them in his chariot….or maybe
Elizabeth Taylor exchanging Eddie Fisher for Richard Burton while filming
Cleopatra (much to Debbie Reynold’s delight).
To see Egyptian history you could either go to Cairo or the British
Museum, where many of Egyptian antiquities landed during the British colonial
era.
But just underneath the surface it has been smoldering and a
hot bed of international activity. Egypt led two wars of note against Israel, the
Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973. This resulted in the Arab oil embargo to the
United States and gas rationing.
Although it did better militarily in 1973 than 1967, Egypt recognized it
would never defeat the Israelis and in 1979 and made peace with Israel under
the Camp David Accords.
Now it is back in the forefront. Egypt is a poor nation and relied heavily on
the Soviet Union for financial assistance, and then the United States. It’s the United States which keeps the
Egyptian military in business. We pay 70% of the Egyptian military’s budget. Through assassinations and military
uprisings Egypt has had several changes of government starting with Hosni
Mubarak who came to power after the assassination of Anwar Sadat. Mubarak was
then overthrown in February of 2011 in the Egyptian version of the Arab
Spring. Elections took place about a
year later electing the radical Muslim Brotherhood led by Mohamed Morsi to
power. Morsi, in turn, rammed through an
Islamist constitution, usurped power from the Egyptian courts, threatened the military, and just last
week was thrown out of office in an Egyptian military coup in response to
millions of people taking to the streets. He is now under house arrest, and the head of his party is under real arrest.
The story that is not being told by any of the media in the
United States is that it is the Egyptian people who are now leading the war
against radical Islam. Egypt has become
the hot war front line against the Islamists.
What is even more disturbing is that Barack Obama seems to be falling on
the wrong side of all rebellions against radical Islam over and over
again. It gives one pause. What is he doing?
Since the beginning of his presidency Obama has taken a
conciliatory approach to radical Islam.
Domestically, he declared the war on terror over. While cracking down on Christians and Jewish
religious activity in the public sector, he has accommodated Muslim activity. He has refused to call Muslim terrorists what
they are…terrorists. He has pointed
Homeland Security away from Islamic terror and towards “right wing” terrorist
groups. He failed to follow up on
information provided to his administration about the Boston bombers. Meanwhile, granny in a wheel chair is still
being patted down before getting on an airplane to placate “profiling” Muslims…and
my phone calls to my wife are being monitored. The Fort Hood massacre is still not being
called a terrorist event, and this Islamic whack job is defending himself in
the courts.
Internationally, he failed to support the Iranian green
revolution pulling American support for those in the streets opposing the
Mullahs, leaving demonstrating students twisting in the wind. He has led from behind in Egypt offering
succor to the Islamists who eventually came to power and now have been thrown
out by the Egyptian people and army. He
still is saying the Muslim Brotherhood must be included in a new Egyptian
government.
In Libya, America came late to the party as Ghadafi was
overthrown. The night of the Islamist attack on Benghazi and our embassy and
ambassador, Obama was nowhere to be seen.
He later blamed the event on a video rather than terrorism from Islamic
radicals while he fund raised in Nevada. His administration refused requests for
additional security before the raid, and military help during the raid.
All of these things, plus a myriad of others, have been
shrugged off by the American press.
Maybe individually they can be ignored.
Together, it paints a disturbing picture. Obama has NEVER answered his view of radical
Islam which is anathema to everything his left wing supporters believe. America needs to know his core beliefs about
Islam as Russia, China, and just about every other nation leaves us in the dust
in dealing with a philosophy that beheads gays, burns down Christian churches,
and beats women for uncovering their face.
America owes the people of Egypt and the Egyptian army a
debt of gratitude for doing what we have failed to do.
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