Call Me Stormy

Finding righteous currents in turbulent times

Archive for the tag “Libya”

West Miscalculated Arab Rage

In an exclusive interview with Russia Today TV, former British spy Alastair Crooke says the West grossly miscalculated the potential for violence and anti-Western anger to arise in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Crooke has a deep knowledge of the region, having been involved in clandestine negotiations with Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist militia while serving as a British M16 intelligence agent and as a European Union diplomat. He currently is based in Beirut, Lebanon, where he is the founder and director of the Conflicts Forum.

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Obama Empowered Extremists

Tawfik Hamid, an ex-jihadist and author from Egypt, says the United States has empowered radical Islamists by adopting a naive diplomatic approach in the Middle East. Hamid faults the Obama Administration for embracing “sudden democracy syndrome,” encouraging the downfall of longstanding regimes and siding with revolutionary forces throughout the region. The problem with that policy, asserts Hamid: Once the militants are in the driving seat, they won’t hesitate to violently turn against their Washington patrons, as evidenced by the brutal murder of the US ambassador in Libya.

Hamid is interviewed here by Russia Today, the Russian global TV network. The Russians have their own motives, of course, for wanting to apply the brakes to Islamic extremism. Not only is Russia flanked on its southern border by several predominantly Muslim nations, but Russia also has propped up Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in his civil war against a rebel alliance that includes militia connected to al-Qaeda.

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Why Appeasement Won’t Work

The explosion of anti-American violence throughout the Muslim world will negatively impact President Obama’s re-election campaign, as it underscores a fundamental weakness in his approach to foreign affairs. “It’s just like the hostage crisis for Jimmy Carter,” says conservative pundit Dick Morris. “These folks in these other countries, these radical Islamist Muslims, are not fair people. You can’t go out to them and extend an olive branch, and expect them to take it.”

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Not One Penny More

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, calls for foreign aid to end for Egypt, Pakistan and Libya “until they act like our allies.” Paul advocates that half the savings be reallocated for veterans’ benefits and the balance applied to debt reduction.

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In the opposite camp, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, argues that foreign aid serves a vital purpose to maintain stability, promote democracies worldwide and to project American power.

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What’s your position? Ours lies between the two poles represented by Rand and McCain. The United States needs to be careful in doling out aid to these turbulent nations. Conditions must be attached ensuring the safety of American interests — such as embassies or businesses. And we should never give aid — not one penny more — to nations hostile to us.

Go to Hell, Thugs

Fox News pundit Charles Krauthammer tells the mobs that attacked the US embassy in Egypt and US consulate in Libya yesterday they can “go to hell.” At the minimum, the United States should cut all military aid to the two countries, as it’s apparent neither is safe enough, or politically mature enough, to receive weaponry. It sure didn’t take these extremists long to dash any fantasies about the Arab Spring producing stable democracies.

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Romney Condemns Mob Attacks

Republican GOP candidate Mitt Romney condemns the attacks on US embassies by mobs in Libya and Egypt, and criticizes the Obama administration for sending mixed messages regarding the attacks, failing to protect American values or to project American power. John Christopher Stevens, the US Ambassador to Libya, and three others were killed in the torching of the US consulate in Benghazi, the first murder of an American diplomat abroad since 1979. The assaults came on the anniversary of the 9-11 demolition of the World Trade Center in New York City, also perpetrated by Islamic extremists. Only six US ambassadors have been killed in the line of duty, the last being Adolph Dubs in Afghanistan in 1979.

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Here is footage of the attack in Cairo. After scaling the embassy wall, the protesters took down the US flag and tore it into shreds. They raised a black al-Qaeda flag bearing the inscription “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet.” Egyptian police later dispersed the crowd.

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In Benghazi, Libya, the mob torched the US consulate. Ambassador Stevens died from asphyxiation. The three other Americans were shot, including two Marines protecting the US compound. Some of the “protesters” were bearing rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

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Meanwhile, President Obama rejected a request to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, snubbing our strongest ally in the Middle East. Seems Obama’s date card is filled yapping with South Florida DJ Pimp with a Limp and David Letterman.

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Ayers Predicts US Collapse

Bill Ayers, co-founder of the radical Weather Underground and controversial associate of President Obama, forecasts the collapse of the United States, bankrupted by runaway spending on an out-of-control arms race. “We are entering into a new arms race that’s going to spend us into catastrophe,” he tells a reporter from RT, the global Russian TV network.

In the far-ranging interview, Ayers also extols Occupy Wall Street while castigating NATO as “a military dictatorship” that’s merely “a fig leaf for the United States.” Additionally, he asserts that the US represents a greater threat to global stability than Iran, saying “invasion, aggression and occupation” have been the motivating factors behind all American involvement in wars over the past half-century.

This perhaps explains Obama’s 2008 remark that he intended to campaign in all 57 states — with Iraq, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and Libya all having been aggressively invaded, occupied, annexed and granted statehood over the past decade.

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