Monday, February 24, 2014

Hillary Clinton’s Foreign Policy Blunder of Historic Proportions



By Michael Youssef
Sunday, February 23, 2014

It is easy to question Hillary Clinton’s competence during her tenure as Secretary of State. U.S. relations with Russia have deteriorated, Iran and North Korea have not been restrained, and Syria has fallen into chaos.

And as far as blunders go, it’s hard to compete with her revealing congressional testimony about the reason for the Benghazi attack, during which she heartlessly asked, “What difference does it make?”

But her greatest blunder was failing to recognize the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt for what it was: a terror organization.

The Muslim Brotherhood is just like its kissing cousin, Hamas. Their definition of democracy is: one man, one vote, one time. After the first election, you’ll never see another.

Clinton’s unbridled support for the Brotherhood leader and now-disgraced former Egyptian President, Mohamed Morsi, was inexcusable. A freshman in Foreign Policy 101 would have seen through the charade that led to her historic miscalculation.

Tapes recently released by Egyptian intelligence reveal that the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas were working hand-in-glove together.

Let me summarize this disgraceful drama, act by act:

Act One

The Muslim Brotherhood gets Hamas to lob a few missiles toward Israel, thus setting the trap.

Act Two

The U.S. asks Morsi to intervene and stop Hamas from lobbing said missiles toward Israel. The Obama Administration is motivated, not out of a love for Israel, but to prevent it from retaliating.

Act Three

With the missiles stopped, Hillary is lured to Egypt, where she declares Morsi (and by inference, the Muslim Brotherhood) as a great statesman and lover of peace.

Act Four

Along with that unbridled praise, a few billion dollars is sent to Egypt—most of which ends up lining the pockets of the Brotherhood high command.

Act Five

The Western media declares that Mrs. Clinton is a statesperson of heroic proportion. Everyone lives happily ever after.

Well, maybe not that last part.

So much for Clinton’s “experience.” She fell for the Brotherhood trap—hook, line, and sinker. She failed to understand that she was praising an aspiring dictator (brought to power with the help of the American Embassy) who the majority of Egyptians loathed.

But even after that five-act blunder, her mistakes continued. When 33 million Egyptian patriots took to the streets and rejected Morsi and his Islamist deception, the Obama Administration sat on its hands. And it remained aloof after a temporary government took over and made a commitment to bring Egypt into the 21st century.

So as Mrs. Clinton might ask, “What difference does it make?”

The chain of blunders made a historic difference. The new, temporary leader of Egypt, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi—Now field Marshal-who had acted as a steward to protect the freedom of the Egyptian people—saw no hope in dealing with the Obama Administration.

So on February 12, 2014, he visited Russia. There he was hailed as a hero and given a reception appropriate for a head of state. While President Obama felt the need to lecture Sisi, Putin declared him the up and coming leader of Egypt.

As the U.S. government continues to offer the cold shoulder, 22 million Egyptians have signed a petition to draft Sisi to run for president. No wonder the Egyptian public detests Obama more than his most ardent opponents in the U.S. are capable of doing.

Clinton may be made of Teflon when it comes to her responsibility and response to the Benghazi attack. But her culpability in losing a key U.S. ally to Russia is not only unforgettable, it should be politically unforgiveable.

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