Events in February, half a world apart, should give the staunchest “Team Obama” supporters pause to question this Administration’s mental health in understanding the evil plaguing the Middle East, primarily, and the West secondarily.
Obama’s February 18th “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) summit discussed possible causes for such behavior, avoiding all links to Islam.
So nebulously written were U.S. Department of State CVE promotional materials that Voice of America reported the week prior the summit’s focus would be on “American Extremism.”
A visitor to Planet Earth attending the CVE would have fared no better in understanding the raison d’etre for such extremism, while recognizing that social grievances, like poverty, were being held accountable. Of course, as an intelligent life form, an extraterrestrial would have departed the summit wondering why so many other poverty-stricken regions fail to generate the same violent extremism historically dominant in the Middle East.
The summit achieved little. This is unsurprising as many of those attending represented Muslim Brotherhood interests that are being furthered by the same violent extremism Team Obama refuses to call by name.
Meanwhile, also in February, an entirely different CVE approach was taken by one known as Islam’s “Protector of the Two Holy Cities”: Saudi Arabia’s new king, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
The Saudi CVE conference took place in one of the protected cities, Mecca, where King Salman, unlike Obama, took a surgical approach to identify violent extremism’s root cause.
King Salman identified the cause of the most prevalent form of violent extremism threatening the world today as “Islamized terrorism.” He suggested the evil advanced by those acting under a tortured version of Islam endangers both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, declaring it is time for “scholars, preachers and people of conscience to warn people against this scourge, and disavow it.”
While such a position by the Saudi King is encouraging, it is interesting to note the conference was hosted by the Muslim World League—a long-time promoter of the Wahhabi fundamentalist mentality which the King was criticizing.
Worth notice too was, less than two weeks later, the King was presenting a literary award to Zakih Naik who, as a staunch Indian Wabbihist, claims 9/11 was an “inside job.”
But, the Saudi King did feel sufficiently concerned about Islamized terrorism to call the evil out by name.
If only Team Obama were willing to warn us with a similar clarion call.
Participating in the Mecca conference was Sheikh Dr. Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Cairo’s center of Sunni Islamic studies at Al-Azhar University. Following up on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s courageous address earlier at the university calling for Islam’s reform, Tayyeb urged the same.
Additionally, recognizing many Egyptian mosques are dens of inequity spewing forth Islamic extremism, Sisi shut down thousands of them. Clerics must now obtain a license before opening a mosque and also sign a pledge not to preach violent Islamist doctrine.
Concerns Islam runs amok—voiced by leaders of two such prominent Arab Muslim states—demand a response from Team Obama as to why it continues to refuse to acknowledge Islam’s link to global terrorism.
We can remember as children playing a game using a pencil to connect numerous dots on paper. An image, initially indiscernible, eventually began to reveal itself. It took some of us longer than others to recognize the image hidden therein.
Successfully attacking a problem first requires understanding its root cause. The Saudi and Egyptian governments have connected all the dots for Team Obama, revealing the image of the face of evil. This image ties global terrorism and Islamism together. Yet Team Obama still doesn’t get it.
Does Team Obama collectively lack the mental ability to do so, proving its inherent inability to safeguard us?
An affirmative response directs us to Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution. A President’s removal from office is authorized for “high Crimes and Misdemeanors”—a term of art today’s scholars suggest includes serious dereliction of duty.
Of such dereliction, Team Obama is most definitely guilty.
Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.), is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the U.S. invasion of Panama and the first Gulf war. He is the author of “Bare Feet, Iron Will–Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefields,” “Living the Juche Lie: North Korea’s Kim Dynasty” and “Doomsday: Iran–The Clock is Ticking.” He frequently writes on foreign policy and defense issues.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.