With yesterday’s storming of American diplomatic offices in Egypt and Libya, the world is now watching the true colors of Islamists—something that those of us with experience have known all along. Unfortunately the Obama administration has been doggedly colorblind to the Islamists’ true colors.
We give Egypt $2 billion a year. We give Libya military and financial aid to topple their dictator. But what do we get in the way of thanks? Death and destruction.
Make no mistake—these recent violent events will not be contained to those two countries. It will spread to many other countries that we have supported in the past—supported with our money and blood.
The extreme naivety of our foreign policy makers is not only embarrassing; it is dangerous and disastrous.
As Yogi Berra once said: “It’s déjà vu all over again.” By that I mean, it’s “1979 Iran” all over again. In that year, another group of naïve amateurs ran our foreign policy, and their ignorance ultimately led to the storming of our embassy and the hostage-taking of American citizens for 444 days.
Here is the core of our government’s ignorance: We assume that everyone is like us. That everyone responds with gratitude to generous gestures. That everyone respects us with the same respect that we offer them. That when we bend over backwards, they will show appreciation for our efforts to please them.
But not only would they never respond that way; they view our actions as unmitigated weakness. And with weakness they see an opportunity: the further humiliation of the infidels.
Our foreign policy officials ignorantly believe we won’t be viewed as infidels since we give them money. But to Islamists, it’s not only legal to take money from infidels; taking such money and using it to humiliate us is considered the height of superiority.
Apparently the attacks in Egypt and Libya were provoked by a film that disparages Islam and Muhammad. To be sure, I would never be party to any film or form of attack on the Muslim religion. The people behind that film were foolish.
But Arab Spring or no Arab Spring, Islamists will never understand what democracy and freedom of speech are all about. They will never understand that the US government had nothing to do with the film. The killing of innocent people will never touch their conscience. To them, the killing of any infidel is always just.
When will the adolescents in Washington wake up and smell the Jihadi coffee? When will they rouse themselves from their stupor of naivety?
When will America begin to comprehend the gravity of our times?
I pray, God, that it will be soon.
Michael Youseff
