Former Vice President Dick Cheney has urged the U.S. to fight back against the protests which have been taking place in the Islamic world.
Protests? What protests?
The Islamic mobs that have been rioting in the streets all over the world ostensibly in response to Innocence of Muslims are doing much more than simply protest over the production and airing of a 14-minute video in the United States which Islamists found offensive because it mocked their Prophet Muhammad and denigrated Islam. The mobs are calling for the death of America...they are calling for Americans to be murdered, including President Obama...they are burning American flags and destroying American property...they are calling for Americans' right to free speech and freedom of expression to be removed...they are beating up and killing Americans...they are vilifying, damning and threatening America and Americans in the name of Islam. Peacefully protesting against Innocence of Muslims is not what is happening. Violent, angry, hateful, anti-American Islamic mobs have taken over streets all over the world and have left chaos, destruction and death in their wake, that is what is going on.
This is happening with the encouragement and collusion of Islamic governments and Islamic terror organizations worldwide.
President Obama and his administration have responded by trying to appease the mobs and the governments and terrorists spurring them on. They have apologized for free speech and freedom of expression rather than defending them, disavowed any responsibility for the video, persecuted and tried to prosecute its producer/director and demeaned America and its values by not standing up for them, by being apologetic and contrite. Obama and his administration have also not taken any meaningful, concrete, decisive steps to stop the riots and hold the sponsors and perpetrators responsible. This all means of course that the current round of riots will continue for some time and that others will follow them as Islamists become more and more emboldened by Obama’s weakness and appeasement.
Why is all of this anti-American violence happening? It's not because of Innocence of Muslims (that's just the latest excuse) or because Islamists by their very nature and the nature of Islam are constantly offended or because Islamists hate America and everything it stands for and feel that it must be destroyed if Islam is to reign supreme. Its happening because Obama is allowing it to happen, that’s why.
There are many military and non-military things he can do to end the violence but he is doing nothing and so it goes on. Want to stop the riots in Egypt for example? Immediately withdraw, not suspend, withdraw, all or part of the 1.6 billion dollars in aid Americans give Egyptians annually and see how fast the Egyptian government shuts them down. The same goes for Pakistan or anywhere else that benefits from America’s largesse.
Try that as a start. There are many other things that can be done as well. Hit them hard in the pocketbook first and if that doesn’t work, fast, hit them hard somewhere else. Hit them hard though and keep on hitting them until it stops.
There are three great lessons of history which Obama hasn’t learned and which account for the entirely predictable response of the Islamic world to his ideology and politics of appeasement and apology.
The first is that appeasement and apology never stop anyone from doing anything, all they do is make things worse.
The second is that in the Islamic world only the sword is respected and only the sword can stop Islamists from acting the way they do. Words, gestures, appeasement, apologies are signs of weakness and do nothing except bring on violence, death and conquest.
The third is that countries that turn their swords into ploughshares get ploughed under, which is exactly what Obama is doing and exactly what's happening to America.
Former Vice President Cheney was absolutely right when he urged the U.S. to fight back. Unfortunately, Obama won’t do any such thing, which means that American lives and treasure will continue to be lost to Islamic mobs as long as he remains president.
It also means that Islamic mobs will soon come to America itself and bring their violence, anger, hate, chaos, demands, destruction and death along with them because Obama is no more willing to stop them in the homeland than he is anywhere else.
Jerry Philipson is a retired grandfather who has spent many years working in non-profit social service agencies in Canada and the United States. He holds dual Canadian and American citizenship and has been passionate about politics, civil liberties, freedom and democracy for virtually his whole life. He is particularly interested in the Middle East and America and believes that it is vital for people of good heart and good conscience to speak out against tyranny and dishonesty and to stand up and defend and protect Western values, principles and institutions.
