To the casual observer, President Obama has been reasonably effective at fighting Islamist terrorists. His campaign and allies frequently tout the take-down of bin Laden, as well as scores of drone strikes against terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere, under his administration.
A closer analysis of Obama’s record, however, reveals a fact that most Americans are wholly or largely unaware of: that many of his actions (and inactions) actually serve to encourage, if not validate Islamist terrorists and their enablers. This article provides key background information and a timeline of key events that show how Obama has helped embolden militant Islamists, and advance their strategic objectives.
Weakness and submission as instigators of terrorism – and disintegration of one’s culture
There are only two things that militant Islamists respect in an adversary: physical might, and moral courage. Although they loathe our freedom and culture, they respect (and tend not to attack) nations that vigorously and consistently stand up for themselves, their values, and their people. President Reagan fully understood this principle, and applied it vigorously (with one exception):
“Deterrence means simply this: making sure any adversary who thinks about attacking the United States, or our allies, or our vital interests, concludes that the risks to him outweigh any potential gains. Once he understands that, he won’t attack. We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression.”
– President Reagan, March 23, 1983
Conversely, the one thing Islamists (and all bullies) detest in an adversary is weakness, submission, and an unwillingness to muster the moral courage to acknowledge the enemy by name. The ultimate goal of Islamists’ cultural (pre–violent) jihad is to inculcate in a nation’s major institutions a willingness to (1) smear as “Islamophobes” anyone who points out the fact that the vast majority of terrorism today is a direct outgrowth of the Islamist ideology – and (2) deny that law enforcement, intelligence and military assets should be directed at combating both the violence and the ideology that incites and justifies it.
These assertions were validated by bin Laden himself. In his 1998 interview with ABC’s John Miller, bin Laden stated that the turning point for Al Qaeda and its overall strategic planning was his witnessing of President Clinton’s hurried 1993 withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from Mogadishu, Somalia, after the incident best known as “Black Hawk Down.” (Briefly: Islamist terrorists and insurgents downed several U.S. military helicopters, then murdered all of the American special forces warriors on board, and videotaped themselves dragging the corpses of our fallen heroes hrough the streets of their hellhole – video that was later shown around the world. In response, Clinton – who already had a strained relationship with the U.S. military, in part because he once claimed he “loathed” it – ordered all of our military assets immediately out of Somalia, to the delight of the Islamist terrorists who carried out the attack.)
In the ABC interview five years later, bin Laden said:
It is within this context that militant Islamists have found a significant ally in Obama.
Read the original blog here.