Lee Smith’s latest column may be among the best of the commentary regarding the Obama administration’s foreign policy during the recent Middle East uprisings. The title of the column is consistent with that of Smith’s book, The Strong Horse (linked in our reading section), which borrowed from a quote from bin Laden.
President Obama and the White House have been almost inexplicably timid in responding to Libya, and Lee Smith explains the effect the White House’s reactions to Egypt and Libya have had:
Regardless of how the political landscape of a post-Mubarak Egypt takes shape—the military regime holds on to power, or the Muslim Brotherhood gets a larger share of power, or a newly elected president embarks on a series of much-needed liberal reforms—the fact is that the Obama administration’s treatment of the former Egyptian president rattled Arab allies. Of course, the White House could have played that to its advantage, leaving even friendly Arab regimes with the impression that the Americans are serious about pushing democracy and dangerous when crossed. That is, if you step out of line, Washington has the knives out for you, even if you’ve kept the peace with Israel for 30 years.
But the comparison between Obama’s strong words for Mubarak, a one-time pillar of American Middle East strategy, and his near absolute silence on Qaddafi, whose hands are dripping with American blood after four decades of terrorism, shows the Arabs that the White House is not serious but incoherent. The president cannot even abide by the one principle that has seemed to guide his Middle East policy since his 2009 Cairo speech—his personal public outreach to the Muslim masses.
Read the entire column. It’s hard to disagree with Smith’s conclusion.
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