Since Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi increased his power and drafted a Shariah Islamist Constitution, the response of the White House has been silence and inaction. This followed leading the lavish praise for a Gaza cease-fire, which Morsi used as cover for his move. Obama finally, at long last, for the first time since the power-grab called Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. Did he criticize the Muslim Brotherhood's declaration of sweeping powers? Did he tell Morsi that the Egyptian radical Islamic Con
stitution just drafted raises serious concerns with the United States? Did he mention any aid potentially at stake? Did he reprimand Morsi for using the international praise, led by the U.S., as a cover to announce his consolidation of power? Of course not. "The president emphasized that all political leaders in Egypt should make clear to their supporters that violence is unacceptable," the White House said in a statement. Because the U.S. should be just as worried about Mohammed El-Baradei as Mohammed Morsi? There was no unique emphasis on the misconduct, the marauding gangs raping women, the lack of trustworthiness, the radicalism, of the Muslim Brotherhood and its leader in particular. Not even mild criticism. I am certain Morsi is laughing in his palace, which he was forced to flee by protesters, but has since returned to once now guarded by tanks provided by the United States of America.
Compare this phone call with Morsi with the New York Times report on September 24, 2012 about Obama's call to Hosni Mubarak:
President Hosni Mubarak did not even wait for President Obama’s words to be translated before he shot back. “You don’t understand this part of the world,” the Egyptian leader broke in. “You’re young.” Mr. Obama, during a tense telephone call the evening of Feb. 1, 2011, had just told Mr. Mubarak that his speech, broadcast to hundreds of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo, had not gone far enough. Mr. Mubarak had to step down, the president said. Minutes later, a grim Mr. Obama appeared before hastily summoned cameras in the Grand Foyer of the White House. The end of Mr. Mubarak’s 30-year rule, Mr. Obama said, “must begin now.” With those words, Mr. Obama upended three decades of American relations with its most stalwart ally in the Arab world, putting the weight of the United States squarely on the side of the Arab street. It was a risky move by the American president, flying in the face of advice from elders on his staff at the State Department and at the Pentagon, who had spent decades nursing the autocratic — but staunchly pro-American — Egyptian government.
Mubarak was right. Obama clearly does not understand that part of the world. Mubarak was warning Obama that dangerous forces would replace him. Yet Obama called for Mubarak to step down, against the advice of the "elders" at the State Department and Pentagon. For what? To make way for the Muslim Brotherhood. What is unfolding in very clear terms before our eyes now is absolutely disgusting, and it's not terribly difficult to notice either.
In fact, the Washington Times reports that "for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government, more battle tanks and jet fighters are on their way from the United States." Frank Gaffney, a senior defense policymaker in the Reagan administration, has been warning about the rise of the Brotherhood as it relates to the U.S. He said: "My principal concern with the Obama administration’s approach to Egypt is they seem oblivious to the fact it is now in the hands of a regime that is deeply hostile to the United States and certainly poses an immediate threat, I believe, to our friends in Israel. Under those circumstances, it is alarming that they are continuing to arm Egypt in a way that can only exacerbate the threat.”
As for how to deal with Morsi, America should at the very least precondition foreign aid on various contingencies (that run against a Shariah constitution and Muslim Brotherhood power-grabs), steps Obama is overtly pressuring Congress not to take. Morsi should have been given a call immediately upon his power-grab to exert pressure and for the President to play hardball. No competent leader would lead an international chorus of high praise for the Muslim Brotherhood leader to begin with, and any competent leader would have criticized Morsi immediately for stepping out of line with the power-grab. Obama should be in close contact with Mohammed El-Baradei and getting his input, and so on. Pretty much take everything Obama has done, and do the opposite, and you would have a more sane approach to the Muslim Brotherhood rise in Egypt.
The fact remains that the rockets stopped temporarily from Gaza, but a Muslim-Brotherhood brokered and enforced cease fire is a joke. There is no reason to think Hamas is not being rearmed as we speak, there is absolutely no reason to think that Morsi does not stand solidly behind Hamas. There is certainly no excuse for our having lavished him with high praise, any non-deluded person would realize we needed to be more circumspect and skeptical of this Muslim Brotherhood leader even in the wake of the cease-fire. Was that Obama's mindset? No. "Mr. Obama told aides he was impressed with the Egyptian leader’s pragmatic confidence,” The New York Times reported after the Gaza ceasefire Nov. 21. “He sensed an engineer’s precision with surprisingly little ideology." I sensed a delusional fool in the White House immediately upon seeing that. And who was right? I was, of course. It is a fact that the U.S. led the international praise of Morsi. It is a fact that the ink had barely dried on the international paeans when Morsi declared that any domestic challenge s to his decrees, laws and decisions were "temporarily" banned. Coincidence? Of course not. He used the foolish international songs of high praise, with the U.S. leading the choir, as a cover for this Muslim Brotherhood President immediately announcing new sweeping powers. What a fine demonstration of the Obama administration's "smart power" diplomacy. Did Obama then try to not be taken for a fool? Did he do anything to show his displeasure for how quickly after that cease-fire, after U.S. and international praise, things began deteriorating in Egypt itself? No he did not. He let the praise stand alone, and let the deafening inexcusable silence and inaction follow. Practically everything Obama is doing and has done has been perfectly wrong.
When Tahrir square is filled to protest pro-Western Mubarak, we have no choice but to call for him to step down. But apparently when Tahrir square is filled to protest Islamist Morsi, we have no choice but to be silent. Obama must immensely pressure Bibi, "harshly criticize" and "slam" him just this week, but the United States must respond with shameful silence and no consequences to Morsi. This is exactly the kind of foreign policy Obama opponents were worried about. We just did not know we would, unfortunately, see ourselves proven correct so soon after the election. Morsi has even called for the Egyptian military to secure Cairo, and America remains silent.
Obama's feckless and inept approach to the Islamist rise in Egypt is not going unnoticed. As David Ignatius wrote in the Washington Post:
"And let’s be honest: The Obama administration has been Morsi’s main enabler... Probably thinking he had America’s backing, Morsi overreached on Nov. 22 by declaring that his presidential decrees were not subject to judicial review. His followers claim that he was trying to protect Egypt’s revolution from judges appointed by Hosni Mubarak. But that rationale has worn thin as members of Morsi’s government resigned in protest, thousands of demonstrators took the streets and, ominously, Muslim Brotherhood supporters began counterattacking with rocks, clubs and metal pipes. Through this upheaval, the Obama administration has been oddly restrained... [I]t’s crazy for Washington to appear to take sides against those who want a liberal, tolerant Egypt and for those who favor sharia. Somehow, that’s where the administration has ended up."Already as of November 25, immediately upon Morsi's initial power-grab, John McCain said on "Fox News Sunday": “To assume this kind of power is unacceptable to the United States of America." The senator warned that Egypt risks a “repeat of the Iranian experience in the 1970s.” Mr. McCain, who is the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the U.S. should threaten to withhold billions of dollars in aid to Egypt unless Mr. Morsi returns to a more democratic path. “This is not what the United States and American taxpayers expect and our dollars will be directly related to the progress towards democracy, which you promised the people of Egypt, when your party and you were elected president,” he said. Unfortunately we are not hearing this from where it is desperately needed: from the leader of the free world. Tweet
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