By Ari Bussel
The United States of America under President Barack Obama will be accused one day of bringing about the next world war.
It was President Obama who demanded President Mubarak of Egypt to leave. With an equally heavy hand, he demanded Libyan leader Gaddafi’s exit. It worked successfully with Mubarak, America’s closest Middle Eastern ally after Israel. It shocked many because no one expected a friend to sell out a friend, and the lesson left a very deep impression across the Arab world and Israel. With Gaddafi, the American President received a litany of outbursts. Gaddafi, the desert warrior wearing brown, waved a notebook, his country’s governing document, along with billions in cash held in Tripoli and went on and on, expressing his exact thoughts and feelings toward the American President. A new kind of diplomacy, the straight-in-your-face kind. The world watched hypnotized, listening to the one who dared to stand up to Obama.
Obama did not like this rebellion and instructed American missiles and assets on the ground to target Gaddafi. The President went so far as to deploy NATO forces, to-date unsuccessfully. Gaddafi may be a dictator, but he is still the ruling head of a sovereign country with which the USA is NOT AT WAR.
The Allied Forces managed to murder Gaddafi’s son along with many others, both supporters of Gaddafi and innocent rebels who were inspired by the Arab Spring. It was all brushed aside as casualties of weapons aimed at Gaddafi that missed their target. The world that is quick to condemn Israel releases itself from any like-culpability. And each day more casualties are added, compliments of the Free World.
Gaddafi possesses the Fighter Spirit, a tribal leader who understands his people and the battleground better than outsiders. It is the intensity of his passion that has caused many around the world to giggle in uneasy laughter. Four months later, despite the enormous might of the United States of America and NATO, he remains in power, determined, now more than ever, to avenge his and his country’s honor.
Let us remember his words:
"I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents ... I will die as a martyr at the end.”
"Muammar Gaddafi is the leader of the revolution, I am not a president to step down ... This is my country. Muammar is not a president to leave his post.
"I have not yet ordered the use of force, not yet ordered one bullet to be fired ... when I do, everything will burn.”
The U.S. President is used to getting his way quickly. It seemed to work with President Mubarak, now jailed and facing charges. Credit must be given to Egyptian President Mubarak. He, too, refused to leave his country. He remained devoted, symbolizing true leadership and loyalty to the very end. Except, he did not expect a friend and an ally to stab him right in his heart. Qaddafi was quick to learn the lesson.
If one moves beyond the spin, the reality being shaped by Obama is detrimental to world safety. Egypt remains under the rule of the military, but it is the 2011 American President who singlehandedly ushered in the Muslim Brotherhood. A deed his predecessor managed to do in 1978 with Ayatollah Khomeini, as Carter ushered in the current disastrous regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Gaddafi proved to be a stumbling block, a nuisance. As time passes, our President needs to explain to the U.S. Congress his actions and intentions, something in which he chooses not to engage. Attention must be diverted elsewhere, as he continues his play of redrawing the map of the Middle East.
Israel, America’s staunchest ally in the region, has learned a lesson from President Mubarak’s exit. President Obama is not a safe ally despite decades long relationships, contracts or treaties. Thus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu availed himself of the podium of the U.S. Congress to tell a joint session and the nation that Israel knows she stands alone. He received resounding support from Congress and the American People.
The President must have been quite frustrated. His efforts at redrawing the world’s map to fit his overall intentions have failed miserably (or is it simply a reflection of utter inexperience and the inability to have a long term foreign policy?). Remember, it is the President who won the Nobel Peace Prize for doing, astonishingly, nothing!
Thus, he lost interest in Gaddafi and Netanyahu and now has turned his attention to Syrian President Assad.
Why do his advisors not warn him that as he advances farther toward Iran, the more dangerous every move becomes? Positioning American warships against the Syrian shore means little to Assad, but provides Turkey with impetus for grandeur.
Turkey under Erdogan is looking toward the horizon with large visions. Erdogan remembers centuries of an Ottoman Empire and aspires to once again become a global player. He feels emboldened against Syria, much more than he ever felt against his previous ally Israel and gave orders to shelter Syrian refugees escaping with their lives. His air force is executing missions in Syrian airspace (at the moment only intelligence gathering) and his army has already engaged the Syrians at the border.
Erdogan is a miniature version of Obama. He has already called for the ouster of Assad, thinking his power to be world shaping. He repeatedly treats Israeli leaders, from President Peres to Prime Minister Netanyahu as criminals, on the world stage at Davos and ever since. Funny, how his “Great Turkey” could become a pile of rubble if Iran sets its eyes on that prize. The devastation could take centuries to rebuild.
Neither Obama nor Erdogan possesses strength or a realistic world vision. Ahmadinejad however does, and they are playing right into his hands. It would be the latter’s decision when and how to act. He may come to the aid of Syria, conquering all in his wake and advancing onward to demolish Turkey, unless it surrenders completely. He already likes what he sees at the Lebanese border looking southward to Israel.
Just eight months ago, President Ahmadinejad proclaimed in a speech in Lebanon that “Zionists will disappear” and that “Occupied Palestine will be liberated.” It seems that both Obama and Erdogan fit well into this plan.
The only obstacle for Islamic world domination, and the only countermeasure to American naïveté in foreign affairs under Obama, is Israel. A strong, unwavering, resolute, determined and courageous Israel.
Other elements are trying to undermine Israel’s position and her resolve. They will not succeed. If they do, this international chessboard will soon turn into the fiercest battlefield seen for the past seventy years. Can the world afford World War III? Who will survive the devastation once hatred erupts into actual annihilation?
President Obama in frustration may, with the wave of a hand, throw many more key figures off the chessboard. In real life, however, unlike in an imaginary game or simulation, actions have consequences. Dumping Mubarak, trying to eliminate Gaddafi, angering Netanyahu and now Assad has awakened the sleeping beast.
Once awake, he will not go back to sleep. The smell of the blood of millions is too sweet, too tantalizing, too tempting and simulating to allow for dormancy once again.
The series “Postcards from America—Postcards from Israel” by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager is a compilation of articles capturing the essence of life in America and Israel during the first two decades of the 21st Century.
The writers invite readers to view and experience an Israel and her politics through their eyes, Israel visitors rarely discover.
This point—and often—counter-point presentation is sprinkled with humor and sadness and attempts to tackle serious and relevant issues of the day. The series began in 2008, appears both in print in the USA and on numerous websites and is followed regularly by readership from around the world.
© “Postcards from America — Postcards from Israel,” June, 2011
Contact: bussel@me.com
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