The term Arab Spring, which the mainstream media coined, has been demonized by the conservative media because it has yielded abhorrent results as witnessed in Egypt and Libya the last few days. That was a foolish act because it’s not the Arab Spring that we should blame, but rather the methodology and policies the Obama Administration relied upon that led us to the death of US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. It is not about the Arab Spring, rather it is about the policies of Barack Obama, which make no sense to anyone but the President himself.
In fact, I am a firm believer the “Arab Spring” should have survived the turmoil because any other expression, for those of us in pursuit of real freedom and democracy in the Middle East who need to label future freedom movements, would be utterly dismissed by the left-leaning media. The left gave us the Arab Spring, we should have kept going with the name by demonizing the actions that led to the Arab Terror instead. It’s better to steal it and tailor it with a new suit rather than kill it forever.
THE REAL REASONS BEHIND THE ARAB SPRING
The events unfolding in the region with less than two months to vote in the US elections have shaken our beliefs in the Arab Spring to the point where it has become an evil to avoid at all costs. For those of us who still remember the Tunisian first uprising moments and the subsequent Egyptian and Libyan revolutions also remember watching young disenfranchised Arab youths seeking freedom and economic parity by ousting their oppressors in power. The root cause of the Arab Spring has been and will always be about freedom, human rights, unemployment, cronyism, and corruption.
Between watching a young Tunisian named Mohammad Bouazizi burn himself to death on December 18, 2010 because of police brutality and watching scores of crazed Egyptians and Libyans storm the US Embassies to kill four US Diplomats in Libya on September 11, 2012, you have to agree with me that there is a vast divide between what sparked the Arab Spring and what killed it.
It is time to ask the timeless question: How did we get from there to here?
BLOWN OPPORTUNITY
How did the Obama administration blow this golden opportunity to reform the region by instead handing it over to the Muslim Brotherhood? Starting with outsourcing its Middle East policy to Erdogan of Turkey to end with assisting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? In addition, to ignoring the danger of the extremists lurking in Libya? Promoting the Muslim Brotherhood, the best organized group who also happens to be the best organized to hate everything American or western, is truly sophomoric.
How did the US State Department blow this golden opportunity to lift the region from its dark past? Did we not spend billions and billions of American taxpayers’ money on civil society and democracy programs in the ME with the help of such venerable organizations as the National Democratic Institute (NDI), International Republican Institute (IRI) and the most important one of them all the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)? I wonder if anyone has calculated the amount of taxpayers money that over the years has been funneled to these programs and hundreds more.
Many of these programs were extremely important and we are thankful to all and any organization that sacrificed its time and resources to help the region with regard to the rule of law, voting rights, women’s rights, education, etc. But at what point do we put those programs into practice rather than throw them away in the wind by empowering the only organization in the region that does not respect civil rights or women’s rights?
WHERE IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY?
Did those seasoned US Diplomats who either set in motion the empowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood or turned a blind eye to its foolhardiness not consider how harmful their decisions would be to those who worked tirelessly, in the same NEA Department at State, to help the region move towards a better future? Did their work not have something to do with this spark in Tunisia in 2010?
I ask these questions because the US Congress is not holding those who make these decisions in the US Government accountable. We are at the mercy of policy officials who keep repeating the same mistakes. Because we never question their own accountability. Is there a score card taxpayers can refer to with regard to bureaucratic actions? One that keeps track every time the failure of a US policy costs us more money? Isn’t that what the Government Accountability Office is supposed to do anyway?
The results of empowering the Muslim Brotherhood has yielded exactly what pro-Arab dictators have always wanted. As an example, Senator John Kerry was quick to take advantage of the Libyan tragedy to question regime change in Syria. How is it possible that the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is unable to differentiate between Mubarak and Assad? Can someone explain to him that Mubarak was a friend of the west and Assad is our worst nightmare?
Can someone explain to John Kerry that Mubarak never killed Americans but Assad has? Or maybe someone can explain to me how we consider incompetent men for higher offices? Especially when they repeat the same mistakes that just got Ambassador Stevens and three of our finest diplomats killed in Libya? They died because we confuse who our enemies are and who our friends are.
NO JOHN KERRY PLEASE
Signaling John Kerry will be the next US Secretary of State shows just how amateurish the Obama Administration has become.
It also shows why we have to vote Obama out of office.
It’s not about the Arab Spring, nor should it be. It’s about the policies of our own President who chooses to sweet talk to our enemies by ignoring their danger. Furthermore, it’s about a President who is basing all his assumptions on Iranian passivity. The same way he believed he can tame the Islamists.
Folks, it’s about a President who refused to help the Syrian people. He naively figured he can change the minds of the Mullahs or Putin in Russia.
Hope and change? No, thank you. I would rather have my future anchored in realism and resolve.
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