Pompeo Rejects Obama’s Policy in Egypt: ‘The Age of Self-Inflicted American Shame is Over’
“Let me be clear: America will not retreat until the terror fight is over.”
Back in 2009, former President Barack Obama delivered a speech at American University in Cairo, Egypt, that “promised a new beginning with Muslim and Arab countries.” The right criticized Obama “for placing too much blame on the U.S. for strife in the region.”
On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected Obama’s Middle East policy and stated “the age of self-inflicted American shame is over.”
From Fox News:
Pompeo, while not mentioning Obama by name, said that “it was here, in this city, another American stood before you” and “told you that radical Islamist terrorism does not stem from ideology.”
“He told you that 9/11 led my country to abandon its ideals, particularly in the Middle East,” he said at the American University in Cairo. “He told you that the United States and the Muslim world needed ‘a new beginning.’ The results of these misjudgments have been dire.”
Pompeo said that under Obama, the U.S. abandoned its allies and was “timid” about asserting itself, that the U.S. “grossly underestimated the tenacity and viciousness of radical Islamism,” and kept silent as Iranians tried to rise up against the regime in Tehran.
He also criticized Obama-era policy for “wishful thinking [that] led us to look the other way” as Hezbollah built up its weaponry in Lebanon, and for doing nothing as Syrian President Bashar Assad gassed his own people.
Pompeo turned his attention to Iran and attacked the nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump withdrew America from in 2018. From The Times of Israel:
“President Trump has reversed our willful blindness to the danger of the regime and withdrew from the failed nuclear deal, with its false promises,” Pompeo said. “Countries increasingly understand that we must confront the ayatollahs, not coddle them.”
He said that “In Lebanon, Hezbollah remains a major presence, but we won’t accept this status quo. Our aggressive sanctions campaign against Iran is also directed at the terror group and its leaders.”
He also promised our allies in the Middle East that America will always be there:
“Our aim is to partner with our friends and vigorously oppose our enemies, because a strong, secure, and economically viable Middle East is in our national interest – and yours,” he said. “Let me be clear: America will not retreat until the terror fight is over.”
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Comments
it’s about damn time someone said that.
This is what REAL leadership looks like.
Thank god the adults are back in the White House!
Are you saying Odumbo wasn’t an adult?
Then again, no one’s really figured out exactly who or what he really is.
For certain, we do know he’s a traitor.
Who raised the bar when it came to defining an “empty suit”.
Poor Barry, his pathetic legacy has gone the way of the Gong Show. Good riddance.
Barry was about as much use as a cock flavoured lollipop.
Pompeo deserves a serious shot at the Presidency.
This speech was far more appropriate as a statement of principles for the Pompeo Administration than the Trump Administration. I mean, no retreat? Trump certainly has a policy of standing with Egypt and Saudi Arabia… a policy I don’t expect to continue under any Democratic administrations, at least not without overwhelming regime change. But, it can be easily read as a repudiation of withdrawing from Syria or anywhere else. After all, that is “retreat” in Pompeo’s intellectual environment.
Oh dear god no. You numbskulls haven’t worked out that the ONLY reason this speech took place was because TRUMP!
Jesus…Trump truly is a miracle worker. First he killed millions due to net neutrality repeal. The resurrected those millions to kill them again with tax cuts…and again (TWICE) with two SCOTUS appointments. There truly is nothing Trump can’t do! 🙂
The pre-Trump DC politicians are directly responsible for the Syrian problem.
First, the Obama administration embarks on a program to encourage the rise of radical Islamist groups. Then, it actively assists in the ouster of moderate Islamic leaders, such as Kadahfi. It provides direct support for anti-Assad forces in Syria, most of whom are Islamic radicals. This allows for the rise of ISIL/S. It withdraws US troops from Iraq, creating a power vacuum. This allows ISIL/S to expand into Iraq. This requires the US to directly engage ISIL/S in Iraq. When the US enters Eastern Syria, as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, it brings the US into direct contact with Russian military assets. Because of the domestic political attacks on Trump, which cast Russia as a direct enemy of the US, Trump is unable to seek cooperation with Russia, to reduce ISIL and control Iranian, and later Turkish, adventurism in Syria. Obama policies toward Iran further encouraged that adventurism.
The US, during the Obama Administration, directly created the conditions which allowed the recent problems in the Middle East to develop. And, US political opposition to DJT made it impossible to engage in any cooperative effort with Russia to deal with Middle Eastern problems. We own the recent Mideast situation.
Pompeo/Jordan 2024
Next stop, Guatemala? Mexico? Chicago?
the U.S. “grossly underestimated the tenacity and viciousness of radical Islamism,”
________________________
And we will continue to do so for as long as we continue to indulge the fantasy that muslims engaging in violence in the name of islam are somehow “radical” islamists.
Muslims seeking to spread islam across the globe are not “radical.” They are more accurately described as devout, or compliant, or observant muslims.
The koran teaches muslims that it is their duty to spread islam around the world. It also teaches them that non-muslims are their enemies and their inferiors, and that muslims are justified in fighting and killing non-muslims, and taking their lands and their wealth.
The west is not going to “de-radicalize” muslims because the “radical” beliefs — in islam’s supremacy over all other religions and ideologies, and in muslims’ right to impose islam on non-muslims through violence — are core tenets of the islamic faith.
And we’re not going to change that fact by ignoring it or wishing it away.
Flashback: The speech millions in the Middle East (and I) had hoped Obama would make.
Speech and transcript at c-span
https://www.c-span.org/video/?428828-1/president-addresses-arabislamicamerican-summit-riyadh
Transcript at Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/6ch4wq/president_trumps_full_speech_in_saudia_arabia/
I did not vote for Obama, but I thought he would be an American President like other American Presidents, and I hoped that he would trade on his background living overseas to bring about rapproachement with Muslims of good will. Instead, he did that idiotic apology tour, making the country look feckless, a very dangerous blunder. We are not feckless, and pretending to be so in front of our enemies invites trouble.
We saw right through the fraud, the first day his big ears appeared.
We won’t recede till the next obama
Think Beto, the fake Mexican
Terrifying really
Texas Kennedy
The best speech by an American Secretary of State ever!