Obama's charm offensive and the global jihad

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | February 4, 2009

EARLY IN HIS presidency, Jimmy Carter set about to a letter US policy
toward the Soviet Union. Six days after his inauguration he sent a
letter to Soviet ruler Leonid Brezhnev, hailing the two countries'
"common efforts towards formation of a more peaceful, just, and humane
world" and saluting Brezhnev's supposed "aspiration for
strengthening
and preserving. . . peace." In a commencement address at Notre Dame,
he declared that Americans had shed their "inordinate fear of
communism." In the months that followed, Carter slashed the defense
budget, scrapped the B-1 bomber, welcomed the Sandinista coup in
Nicaragua, and launched diplomatic relations with Cuba's dictator,
Fidel Castro.
It wasn't until the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 that Carter
finally woke up to his naiveté. Moscow's brutal aggression "made a
more dramatic change in my opinion of what the Soviets' ultimate goals
are," he admitted, "than anything they've done in the previous
time
that I've been in office."
Carter's failure to understand the threat posed by the Soviet Empire
had costly consequences for America and the world. Will that pattern
now be repeated with Barack Obama and the threat from radical Islam?
Ever since taking office two weeks ago, Obama has been at pains to
proclaim a change in US-Muslim relations. In his inaugural address he
invited "the Muslim world" to embark on "a new way forward,
based on
mutual interest and mutual respect." Six days later he gave
Al-Arabiya, an Arabic-language satellite channel, his first televised
interview as president. This week he continued his charm offensive
with a friendly letter to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
He has promised to deliver a major address in an Islamic capital by
spring.
The president cannot be faulted for using his bully pulpit to reach
out to the world's Muslims, especially given his Muslim roots and
family ties. But running through his words is a disconcerting theme:
that US-Muslim tensions are a recent phenomenon brought on largely by
American provincialism, heavy-handedness, and disrespect. Missing is
any sense that the United States has long been the target of jihadist
fanatics who enjoy widespread support in the Muslim world.
"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are
not your enemy," Obama said, although "we sometimes make
mistakes" and
"have not been perfect," and even though "too often the United
States
starts by dictating" and fails to use "the language of respect."
Such apologetic pandering is inexcusable. For decades, as commentator
Charles Krauthammer noted last week, "America did not just respect
Muslims, it bled for them." To liberate oppressed Muslims in Bosnia,
Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq, hundreds of thousands of
Americans risked - and in some cases lost - their lives. Respect? Not
even the Islamist atrocities of 9/11 provoked American leaders to
treat Islam with disdain. "We respect your faith," George W. Bush
earnestly told the world's Muslims on Sept. 20, 2001. "Its teachings
are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah
blaspheme the name of Allah."
Even more troubling is Obama's seeming cluelessness about US-Muslim
history.
"The same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim
world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago - there's no reason why we
can't restore that," he said on Al-Arabiya.
Well, let's see. Twenty years ago, American hostages were being
tortured by their Hezbollah captors in Beirut and hundreds of
grief-stricken families were in mourning for their loved ones,
murdered by Libyan terrorists as they flew home for Christmas on Pan
Am Flight 103. Thirty years ago, the Ayatollah Khomeini seized power
in Iran, proclaimed America "the Great Satan," and inspired his
acolytes to storm the US embassy and hold scores of Americans hostage.
That same year Islamist mobs destroyed the US embassies in Pakistan
and Libya, and staged anti-American riots in other countries.
Radical Islam's hatred of the United States is not a recent
phenomenon, it has nothing to do with "respect," and it isn't
going to
be extinguished by sweet words - not even those of so sweet a speaker
as our new president. Sooner or later, Obama must confront an
implacable reality: The global jihad, like the Cold War, will end only
when our enemies lose their will to fight - or when we do. Let us hope
he's a quicker study than Jimmy Carter.
Jeff Jacoby can be reached at jacoby@globe.com.