In a century that has been engulfed in war, there have been three key moments that have defined the consistent and systematic failures of the ruling class establishment. The Iraq war, the Obama administration’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood and the hasty withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. These three separate decisions highlight administrations that chose the worst options at the time. The result has been severe consequences for American interests.
There are quite a few things that both sides of the establishment agree on, war is one of those things. The Iraq war was no different. The ruling class was set on regime change in Iraq through military conflict to take out Saddam Hussein and find the weapons of mass destruction that they said he had. The vote in the House was 296 to 133 to authorize the war. 215 Republicans and 81 Democrats voted in favor of it. The Senate was a 77 to 23 vote in favor to authorize. 48 Republicans and 29 Democrats voted for the authorization to go to war.
In the Senate, the usual suspects promoted sending troops to Iraq – Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and John Kerry. And of course, you had a Bush administration that had establishment Republicans towing the line to make the invasion happen.
The media, hand-in-hand with Republicans and Democrats, beat the drums of war until their dream finally came to fruition. It was a plan that was hatched by a ruling class that had the wrong intelligence and made a decision based their unified establishment, smarter than thou, faulty viewpoint – to bring democracy to the Middle East.
Looking back 21 years after that decision, how does the Middle East look now? We completely destabilized a region and created more Islamic fundamentalists – the very thing that we were warned we would do if we followed through on the invasion.
But why stop there when you can support the Muslim Brotherhood and empower them after an Egyptian revolution? That’s what the Obama administration did after the ouster of Egypt’s longtime strongman, Hosni Mubarak.
In his 2009 speech in Egypt, before the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the Obama administration made a specific request to the Egyptian government to include members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the audience. When the revolution happened, it let out the crazies and the MB seized the opportunity to get into power, with the encouragement of Barack Obama. The Brotherhood went from an outlawed group in 2009 to the leading power in Egypt in 2012 when former President Mohmed Morsi was elected.
The Supreme Council of Armed Forces, the ruling government that took over from Mubarak when he stepped down in 2011, warned Obama officials that empowering the Muslim Brotherhood would be dangerous. They did not listen.
When Egypt went through a second uprising in 2013, Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military, to the disappointment to the US foreign policy “experts”. During the Obama administration, we saw a dramatic rise in Islamic fundamentalism, and the empowerment of the Muslim Brotherhood was at the center of this strategy.
When Egypt’s second mass protests in 2 years happened in 2013, Egyptians were fed up with Mohamed Morsi. The country was in a crisis and on the brink of collapse. So what did Obama officials do?
The sent their Ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, to send a message to Coptic Christians – don’t protest the injustices that were happening in Egypt as a result of the Muslim Brotherhood’s actions.
It is unacceptable for a US ambassador to tell the oppressed to not protest injustices, but that’s what US foreign policy geniuses did. Ambassador Patterson personally went to the Copic Orthodox Pope, Pope Tawadros II, and asked him to tell his followers to stand down.
The empowerment of a fundamentalist group like the Muslim Brotherhood has never been defended or explained by establishment circles. But over a decade later we now see the results of their policies. When fundamentalists see their ideas protected and encouraged by the West for so many years, they’re emboldened to continue their work and grow their networks.
And that’s what we’re seeing today. Safe havens for terrorists to roam and the lack of backbone in America to defend Western values and our way of life.
But wait, there’s more!
Let us never forget the precipitous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan by Joe Biden. Biden has of course been at the forefront of all of these foreign policy failures of the past few decades. Our abrupt exit was yet another example of failed establishment thinking. They thought, well, if we just leave right away, it’ll be over.
Wrong again.
Our abrupt exit resulted in 13 US troops killed, images of chaos throughout Afghanistan, and an emboldened Taliban that took over Afghanistan. We didn’t have the fortitude to take our weapons and military equipment with us, leaving it in the hands of the enemy. Weakness breads chaos, and that’s what our enemies saw in America after Afghanistan – complete weakness and a lack of clarity in our convictions.
This has been our pattern of behavior since September 11, 2001 – we either shoot the wrong target or we become the target.
Looking back after the worst day in our nation’s history, we need to ask these decisionmakers and supposed foreign policy thinkers that have influenced these key moments in the 21st century – have you made us more safe since 9/11? Have your ideas of democratizing the Middle East, empowering Islamic fundamentalists and running from the enemy made the world a safer place to live?
Throughout all of this, there has been one individual that stood against this madness. He authored the Abraham Accords, which brought peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors; didn’t start any new wars; convinced North Korea to give up its nuclear program; was in the beginning stages of pulling Russia away from China; and kept Chinese influence at bay while still maintaining cordial ties.
He doesn’t like the ruling class’s ideas and thumbs his nose at their failed policies. He is the one man that stands between the disastrous continuation of past abysmal policies. He champions a US foreign policy that promotes American interests abroad and keeps the peace.
President Donald Trump represents the antithesis of invading a foreign country that didn’t attack you, supporting religious fanatics and being weak in the face of your enemies.
The time has come to put these failed neoconservative and neoliberal ideas to bed, and reign in an era that promotes America as the beacon of hope our Founders meant for us to be. We can be a country that tears down someone who stands against our failures of the past 23 years, or we can be a nation that gets back on track and brings peace and prosperity to the world.
The choice couldn’t be more clear. Choose accordingly in November.
