Naked Aggression and Dereliction of Duty

Yesterday marked the eleventh anniversary of the attacks on America of September 11th, 2001; it also marked a new series of attacks on America as our Embassy in Egypt was raided, our Embassy in Libya attacked and the US Ambassador there murdered. This naked aggression has been met with only tepid condemnation by the President of the United States, and a full-throated apology to the Islamofacists that carried out said attacks. I used to think that President Jimmy Carter handled the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979 poorly, but he now seems like a foreign policy proficient compared to Barack Obama.

Following the raid of the US Embassy in Cairo, the State Department issued an apology to offended Islamic radicals, who claimed that an anti-Mohammed movie produced by an individual in America prompted the attacks on our country. Thus, instead of roundly ridiculing the attacks on American soil by Islamic radicals, and vowing to avenge the death of an American Ambassador, the Administration pandered to people who want to kill Americans regardless if a movie was made by an individual or not. Never mind the fact that over 300 million Americans had nothing to do with this movie made by a private producer, and that most Americans seek peace with non-radicalized Muslims around the world, attacking a nation because of the actions of one of its citizens is an obvious attempt to justify something these fanatics wanted to do already. All the Administration did with their all-out apology was legitimize the actions of America’s attackers.

We’ve been down this road before. In 1979 the Islamic radicals overthrew the Shah of Iran, who was favorable to America and her allies, in favor of the installation of a radicalized Islamic regime headed by the Ayatollah Khomeini. The result was the radicalization of Iran, and the rise of a terrorist state that still threatens America and her soon-to-be former ally, Israel. This radicalization took place on the watch of Jimmy Carter, who did not act swiftly to condemn attacks on American property and persons. Carter’s lack of a sufficient response emboldened the terrorists who held our embassy personnel hostage, and locked America into a 444 day stand-off with the hostage takers.

The end of the Iranian Hostage Crisis coincided with the end of the Carter Presidency, and that was no coincidence at all. The hostages held in Iran were released just hours after Ronald Wilson Reagan took the Oath of Office as the 40th President of the United States in January, 1981. The reason: Iran, even under a radicalized regime, knew that President Reagan would not play their games. Peace came through strength, and strength came through the leadership of a President who believed in America. Luckily for us, Governor Romney’s campaign theme is “Believe in America,” and it will take his election for the world to take us seriously again and for our allies to know where we stand.