{"id":996,"date":"2012-09-17T22:27:16","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T03:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hushbeck.com\/blog\/?p=996"},"modified":"2012-09-17T22:27:16","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T03:27:16","slug":"roundtable-5-middle-east-turmoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hushbeck.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/roundtable-5-middle-east-turmoil\/","title":{"rendered":"RoundTable 5 Middle East Turmoil"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s Energion Roundtable<\/a> question with Bob Cornwall<\/a>, Arthur Sido<\/a>, Allan R. Bevere<\/a>, Joel Watts<\/a>, and myself is:<\/p>\n

Do you approve or disapprove of President Obama’s and Governor Romney’s responses to the violence in Egypt and Libya and now in other countries in the middle east?<\/p>\n

One of the problems with reacting to events like this is that information is in flux. Not only does new information come in, but we find much of the early information was just flat out wrong, that is very true here. Thus my comments are based on the information I have as I write, which is on evening of Monday\u00a0 the 17th<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let me start with Romney.\u00a0 I judge all such comments by two criteria: truthfulness and prudence.\u00a0 Concerning truthfulness, I see nothing wrong with Romney\u2019s statement. The state department is under the executive branch and thus speaks for the administration.\u00a0 Thus at the time of his statement, Romney\u2019s comments about the \u201cObama administration\u201d reflected what was known at that time.\u00a0\u00a0 More importantly I do not think we should be apologizing for our values, but more on that shortly. \u00a0Bottom line I find nothing wrong with his statement and a lot right about it.<\/p>\n

Still, while I might wish it otherwise, Romney is irrelevant in the current situation. \u00a0He is not the President, and thus he has not had any effect on the conditions leading up to these attacks, and cannot affect them now.\u00a0 Maybe after next January, if he is elected, but the attention really should be on Obama.\u00a0 Though I must say that the open mike incident with the press,<\/a> revealed that they coordinate the story line far more than even I believed was the case.<\/p>\n

As for Obama, I do not hold him responsible for the statements from the embassy, and applaud his rejection of it.\u00a0 But, that is about the only good thing I can say about his handling of the situation, and much of what he has done causes me great concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First off, I am disturbed by the attempts to mitigate the situation by condemning the video that allegedly sparked the demonstrations. \u00a0I say allegedly because right from the start I doubted that this was the true cause and believed that at best it was a pretext. After all does the administration really expect us to believe that this video that has been on YouTube since July, just happen to be discovered by Muslim on Sept 11?<\/p>\n

Thus while Romney was severely criticized for accusing the administration of apologizing for the video, \u00a0in one of the strange paradoxes that surround so much of the coverage of Obama, much of what the administration has done since can, I\u00a0 believe, be put squarely into that category. \u00a0Rather than condemning the video and pressuring YouTube to remove it<\/a>, the President should be defending Freedom of Speech, something he is required to do by his oath of office.<\/p>\n

In fact, I am very disturbed that the film maker was taken out of his home in the middle of the night<\/a> by the police and taken in for questioning. Not exactly what I call standing up for the right of free speech. Then again it is troubling enough that government officials seek to suppress speech.\u00a0 It is more troubling when they use the military to do so<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 If we can have the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff make a call, could we have a squad of Navy Seals make a visit?<\/p>\n

What I do think the incident reveals is how out of touch and na\u00efve Obama has been.\u00a0 With Obama\u2019s detached management style, it should have come as no surprised that he skipped over half of his daily intelligence briefings<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Following this disclosure, the While House claimed that he reads them, but despite their claims, this is just not the same thing. The briefing is not just a one way street, but a time for questions, direction and feedback.\u00a0 But rather than get the briefing, in the middle of the crisis, Obama felt it was more important to fly off to Vegas for a fundraiser.\u00a0 No wonder he does not have time for Netanyahu. This detachment becomes increasing important as the evidence grows that we had advanced warnings that were ignored.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, this incident is a repudiation of Obama\u2019s Middle East policy, and a confirmation of his critics. The key issue in the Middle East is how to deal with the growing power of radical Islam.\u00a0 The administration assured us that the Muslim Brotherhood were no longer bad guys and that we should celebrate the Arab Spring.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the Arab Spring has become the Islamic winter, just like I and many others thought it would.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is a simple rule in life that even applies to foreign policy: That which gets rewarded, gets repeated. Islamic extremists attack embassies, kill 4 Americans including our ambassador and so far while there have been some verbal condemnation from the White House, their actions have been to go after those who produced a heretofore obscure video.<\/p>\n

What the Obama administration seems to miss is that the real problem is from Arab extremists who claim they represent the Religion of Peace, and who will kill anyone who says otherwise. While Hillary Clinton can say for the administration that \u201cwe absolutely reject its content and message\u201d of the video, one as to\u00a0 wonder if she felt the same way when she attended the Broadway play \u201cThe Book of Mormon\u201d<\/a> which broke new ground in its use of profanity on Broadway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One has to wonder, if we are going to limit free speech when it comes to Islam, what about other religions?\u00a0 Have liberals suddenly reconsidered their view of putting a crucifix in a jar of urine, smearing a painting of the virgin Mary with elephant dung, or depicting Jesus and the apostles as homosexuals?\u00a0 Somehow I think not.<\/p>\n

So what should Obama have done.\u00a0 While he certainly could, and should, be very diplomatic about it, he should also have been very clear that this is a free country and citizens have the freedom to write, speak, and even make videos that others find offensive. In short, he should have stood up for our freedoms.\u00a0 Like Romney did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s Energion Roundtable question with Bob Cornwall, Arthur Sido, Allan R. Bevere, Joel Watts, and myself is: Do you approve or disapprove of President Obama’s and Governor Romney’s responses to the violence in Egypt and Libya and now in other countries in the middle east? One of the problems with reacting to events like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,18],"tags":[1419,1465,1467,795,1464,1420,934,1466,1127,1468],"class_list":["post-996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-foreign-policy","tag-arab-spring","tag-egypt","tag-islamic-winter","tag-libya","tag-middle-east","tag-muslim-brotherhood","tag-obama","tag-open-mike","tag-romney","tag-the-book-of-mormon"],"yoast_head":"\nRoundTable 5 Middle East Turmoil - Politics and Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hushbeck.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/roundtable-5-middle-east-turmoil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RoundTable 5 Middle East Turmoil - Politics and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week\u2019s Energion Roundtable question with Bob Cornwall, Arthur Sido, Allan R. 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