Why has the Obama administration virtually gone "all in" with their repeated claims that the violence, which has erupted from North Africa to the Middle East to Southeast Asia, including Australia, has been caused by one film maker who has produced a film on the Prophet Mohammed. Granted, the movie does not portray Mohammed in a flattering light, but then again, the historical record is what it is and that is to say it calls out Mohammed for what he really was. The filmmaker apparently does go on to disparage Islam itself and I admit I have not seen the video or any specific commentary on that portion of the video, so I hesitate to comment.
Michael Barone poses two interesting and possible answers as to why the Obama administration has gone "all in" with their bet that all the violence was due to the video.
[...] There are, perhaps, two reasons. One is that the administration has put an enormous amount of faith in the idea that Arab Spring uprisings will lead to democracy in much of the Middle East. Current events suggest that faith might be misplaced. For the administration, blaming the movie is easier than admitting they were wrong about something so big and important.
The second reason is that Barack Obama has based much of his approach to Middle Eastern affairs on what he perceives as his own unique ability to reach out to Muslims. The entire point of the president’s June 2009 speech to the Muslim world, delivered in Cairo — the same city where protesters are condemning the United States today — was that Obama’s life story allowed him to understand the Muslim experience in a way that previous American leaders could not. The fact that he spent part of his childhood in a Muslim country (Indonesia) and had many family members who were Muslim, the president apparently believed, would make many previously hostile Muslims somehow like the United States more. [...]
What we are seeing across half the world is not due to one video. Rather, it is the result of a fundamentally flawed idea that The One could bring peace to the Middle East by his mere presence on the world stage.
Muslims around the world, especially radical Muslims, really don't care about Obama's past association with Islam. After all, a radical Islamist would throw his own mother under a bus if it would advance the agenda of radical Islam. So why would a radical Islamist care about one "wanna be" Muslim? To a radical Islamist, it wouldn't matter, since anyone other than a radical Islamist is just another tool to be used to further their para military political goal of world domination through killing all opponents or subjugating the losers of the terror conflict.
Here is Obama's failing from Barone's view.
[...] Looking at his time in office, Obama judges himself on what he believes is his ability to connect with the world. “One of the proudest things of my three years in office is helping to restore a sense of respect for America around the world,” he told a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles last February. “A belief that we are not just defined by the size of our military…but we’re also defined by our values, and our respect for rule of law, and our willingness to help countries in need. We’ve got to preserve that, and we’ve got to build on that.” [...]
My solution is somewhat less ethereal or theoretical. Carry a big stick. Don't be afraid to use it. The corollary is to use that stick swiftly, with overwhelming technological force going in rapidly and leaving rapidly and apply said same force as often as necessary to clearly illustrate what consequences can accrue from those choosing to exercise violence against the United States in any manner. Do not be concerned so much with collateral damage, as it will discourage those who sympathize with and support terrorists to any degree, to find another hobby.
Follow this up with the idea that it is not the responsibility of the United States to stick around and craft a democracy in every corner of the world, nor is it the responsibility of the United States to clean up any mess in the aftermath of teaching terrorists there are consequences for their actions.
Obama fails to understand a fundamental factor in human interaction. Weakness only invites aggression from those who are already looking to do you harm.
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