Obama: the president’s foreign policy in the Middle East is going up in smoke

Christians Suffer as U.S. Foreign Policy

 in the Middle East Flounders

by Richard L. Russell

President Obama these days looks like a homeowner paralyzed in shock as he sees his house ablaze from across the street. The White House is fine, but the president’s foreign policy in the Middle East is going up in smoke. As Egypt implodes with escalating violence and the Syrian civil war rages into a second year, Islamists are using these windows of opportunity to lash out with attacks against Christian communities. Even if President Obama were to break free of his paralysis, none of the major power players in the fast moving and shifting geopolitics of the region would listen to him because the United States has lost much of its prestige and credibility under Obama’s watch.

The Obama administration heaped effusive praise on the popular uprising in Egypt only two years ago. The revolt led the Egyptian military to push aside President Hosni Mubarak after a three decade-long reign. President Obama and his then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton were euphoric over the emergence of “democracy” in Egypt. They supported the Muslim Brotherhood dominated government led by President Mohamed Morsi, who was elected in 2013 in reasonably free and fair elections. President Obama stood by the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government even as the Egyptian people took again to the streets to protest its heavy-handed takeover of the reigns of institutional power and its incompetent management of the economy.

The Egyptian military, however, had other plans and once again used street violence as cover to mount a coup on 3 July 2013 against Morsi.

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