JIHADISTS: 1 - OBAMA: 0

President Obama must, without a moment more of hesitation, distinguish between Muslims faithful to Islam and radical jihadists who hate the West and completely corrupt the Islamic faith. Bush rightly made that distinction clear. Obama is wrongly blurring those lines.

By limiting interrogation techniques, ordering the closure of Gitmo and granting his first television interview as president to a Middle Eastern news network, Obama wants to message Muslims that he, and thus we, are really wonderful 'live and let live' types. In doing so he believes he is changing the "image" of the United States in the Muslim world.

That is a pipe dream. Moderate Muslims have known all along that we are a peace loving people that respects the practice of any religion. They have also come to recognize the forces of evil in their own house who wage jihad in the name of Islam and, in their hate and depravity, kill literally tens of thousands of innocent Muslims. Jihadists wage war on their fellow believers if those faithful do not support the wholesale murder of all, including Muslim, non-jihadists.

That is why both Sunni and Shia turned against the jihad in Iraq. The wanton rape and slaughter of their families became more unbearable than their fear of death. They saw Al Qaeda and their ilk for what they were, power seeking beheading murderers. So most Iraqi Muslims joined forces with the American military during the Surge to put down the terrorist jihadists without further hesitation.

For reasons such as these, Muslims do not want and more importantly do not need a 'can't we all just get along' message from Obama. The president is living in a fairy tale world if, for even a nano second, he believes is actions in office to date have been helpful. In fact, the case can be made that the opposite is true.

Of all the groups out there in the world, the most likely to be encouraged by the interrogation/Gitmo/first interview actions of the president are the jihadists themselves. And when they are encouraged, you can bet that Muslim moderates, not to mention the entire non-Muslim world, are not.

One of the main tenants of jihad, openly expressed by Bin Laden himself, is that people will most certainly always go with the "strong horse" in any contest. He, of course, is correct. That is human nature, be it a strong horse for evil or a strong horse for good. That was how the scenario unfolded in Iraq.

In the power vacuum that followed the fall of Saddam, Al Qaeda and other terrorists stepped into the lurch to take up the "insurgency". For a significant time, the fighting went badly for our side. But the Surge strategy changed the dynamic, empowering local Iraqis to determine their own destiny. In the interim, the jihadists continued to slaughter Muslim innocents in pursuit of their selfish cause. Iraqis, in noting the obvious, turned on the jihadists and the rest is history.

The message out of Iraq to the worldwide jihad was clear. Muslims were, as anyone would in similar circumstances, going with the strong horse. It put terrorists on the defensive if not fully on the run. The tables had been turned in the fight against terrorism and the news was unequivocal: America was no longer a sitting target waiting to be hit but instead was on the offensive. As such, faithful Muslims around the globe who rejected out of hand the hijacking of their faith by jihadists, stood up and demonstrated with actions that spoke louder than words.

Obama, of course, does not want to acknowledge much of this reality for obvious political reasons. He believes that olive branch messages will calm the waters of jihad. Although he may have a reasonable understanding of the Islamic religion, he apparently knows bupkis about radical jihad.

What he has so far managed to accomplish is to send a signal to murderous terrorists that the strong horse may decide to no longer be so strong. It is the wrong message both for our sake as well as the sake of true Islamic faithful everywhere.

In the real world of jihad, fairy tales do not come true.


Obama chooses Arab network for first TV interview
By PAUL SCHEMM

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — President Barack Obama on Tuesday chose an Arabic satellite TV network for his first formal television interview as president, delivering a message to the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy."

The interview underscored Obama's commitment to repair relations with the Muslim world that have suffered under the previous administration.

The president expressed an intention to engage the Middle East immediately and his new envoy to the region, former Sen. George J. Mitchell, was expected to arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for a visit that will also take him to Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy," Obama told the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel.

Obama said the U.S. had made mistakes in the past but "that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."

During his presidency, former President George W. Bush gave several interviews to Al-Arabiya but the wars he launched in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted a massive backlash against the U.S. in the Muslim world.

Obama called for a new partnership with the Muslim world "based on mutual respect and mutual interest." He talked about growing up in Indonesia, the Muslim world's most populous nation, and noted that he has Muslim relatives.

The new president said he felt it was important to "get engaged right away" in the Middle East and had directed Mitchell to talk to "all the major parties involved." His administration would craft an approach after that, he said in the interview.

"What I told him is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating," Obama told the interviewer.

The president reiterated the U.S. commitment to Israel as an ally and to its right to defend itself. But he suggested that both Israel and the Palestinians have hard choices to make.

"I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people," he said, calling for a Palestinian state that is contiguous with internal freedom of movement and can trade with neighboring countries.

Obama also said that recent statements and messages issued by the al-Qaida terror network suggest they do not know how to deal with his new approach.
"They seem nervous," he told the interviewer. "What that tells me is that their ideas are bankrupt."

In his latest message on Jan. 14, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden said Obama had been left with a "heavy inheritance" of Bush's wars.

Shortly after the election, the network's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri used a demeaning racial term for a black American who does the bidding of whites to describe Obama.

The message suggested the terror network was worried Obama could undermine its rallying cry that the U.S. is an enemy oppressor.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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