Today’s violent deaths have laid bare the superficial idiocy of Hillary Clinton and David Cameron when it comes to extreme Islam in the Middle East
On July 29th, The Slog posted:
‘Just as Clinton, Geithner and Obama decided to bet the farm on German hegemony in Europe, now she and the Black Dude are hell-bent on putting all their chips behind Sunni Muslims in general, and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular.’
I also added that the right wing of the GOP ‘began to have serious doubts about whether Clinton knew WTF she was doing when Washington and NATO piled in with financial and air-cover support for the Libyan revolutionaries who toppled Muammar Gadaffi. The Christian Right in particular ( a very powerful interest-group within the GOP) is now becoming increasingly voluble about State’s refusal to condemn Sunni atrocities, and denialism about wholesale Brotherhood actions against non-Sunni rebel groups and Syrian Christians.’
Over time, this site has also condemned the Foreign Office and David Cameron for its naivety in dealings with the Islamist Erdogan, the bonkers support for Libyan rebels, and pathetically short-trousered ideas about ‘The Arab Spring’.
On the latest Syrian escapade, I concluded: ‘the idea that anywhere ruled by Sunni Islamists could ever be safe for Christians and Shi’ites is just plain daft.’
What happened before and during today’s Libyan atrocity was this: an anti-Islamist movie slot was posted on Youtube, not only depicting Mohammed but daring to suggest he might have been sexually active and warlike.The movie was written and shot by Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew. It was promoted by an anti-Muslim, Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States.
Maybe Sam Bacile should change his name to imbecile. But either way, as they say, ‘No people were harmed in the making of this movie’.
Already miffed by not being part of the arrangements in Egypt and Libya, anti-Muslim Brotherhood factions stormed the US Embassy and killed the Ambassador. However, both the Libyan police and the Brotherhood seemed quite happy about it. This quote stands out for me as an example of frighteningly calm illogic:
‘”This is a very simple reaction to harming our prophet,” said a bearded young protester, Abdel-Hamid Ibrahim.’
With that casually lunatic approval of rogue international murder, Mr Ibrahim lays bare the puerile nature of Clintonian/State Department foreign policy in the Middle East.
There can be no ‘backing winners’ when it comes to fundamentalist Islam of any hue. Islamists recognise no sanctity of human life, no religious tolerance, no criticism at all of their way of life, no laws beyond Shariah, and no rights for women. You can back Germany in the EU civil war, you can sign a cease-fire with the IRA, you can meet and come to a rapprochement with the Vietcong: but you cannot come to any kind of accommodation with religious maniacs.
We have had nigh on forty years to get hold of this reality now. During that time there has been a steady stream of Useful Idiots in the West convinced that they could reach out to, or even forge an alliance with, radical Islam. The delusional conviction continues to this day, exemplified by naive sympathisers with Mahmood Ahmadinnejhad – a man who was among the youthful security extremists who took American hostages in the early 1970s, and effectively toppled President Carter.
Iran is nowhere near having a nuclear weapon, but the idea that it doesn’t want one with which to vapourise Israel is a denial of almost every sentiment that emerges from Tehran. Those who refuse to deconstruct or even listen to those statements are every bit as daft as those who didn’t bother to read Mein Kampf during the 1930s.
Speech to Holocaust Conference, 12th December 2006: “The trend for the existence of the Zionist regime is downwards and this is what God has promised and what all nations want…Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out”.
Interview with the Fars News Agency, June 3rd 2007: “With God’s help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine . . . By God’s will, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future.”
Remarks made and approved by Iranian Official News Agency, May 8th 2008…the 60th anniversary of Israel: “Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken.”
Speech in Southern Iran, March 11th 2010: “With God’s grace, the Israeli regime will be annihilated, and other regional nations will be rid of its bad omen”.
Recorded interview with French journalists, September 9th 2012: “Why is it that world leaders are still sensitive to and emphasize the Holocaust? Politicians normally don’t pay significant attention to history and the past.”
In the final analysis, however, the action in Libya is a reality check for that hopelessly worn-to-death American foreign policy belief in the possibility of a deal with any psychopath, just so long as it serves American business, energy and Dollar interests.
It will come to play against Clinton and Obama in November, but any ideas harboured by American voters (or Dan Hannan) that Romney would produce American diplomacy of greater coherence and morality is the naivety of babes in arms.
The American ambassador to Libya has paid for State Department folly with his life today, and every caring human being should be sad about that. But the greater lesson to be learned by the West is this: you face a mad, censorious and barbaric schism of religious fanatics. Deals are not a possibility…..and any belief in degrees of ‘hardlineness’ are doomed to inevitable disabuse.
Related: UK Foreign Office slumbers on as Middle East tensions rise
Footnote: British Foreign Secretary William Hague had this to say today: “The UK stands ready to assist the Libyan authorities in any way we can and to support their efforts to continue the path towards a stable and secure Libya that fulfils the aspirations of the Libyan people.” The Libyan authorities stood by and watched it happen, you shiny-headed clod.
The Slog 