Rush then elaborated on his neo-imperialistic view of the Mideast:
In fact, there were a lot of us having problems because some of the conservative media people, people on our side, were falling for this, too. They thought this was the outgrowth of some great Democracy Project. [Read: The result of Dubya's invasions of Afghanistan then Iraq. - J] That the Arab Spring was spreading the democracy of Iraq further. The tentacles were spreading out throughout the Middle East, and it was starting to show up in Egypt, and from there it would sweep to Syria, and the problem with Israel would minimize, and a bunch of us at the time were warning, it's the exact opposite. This is an uprising by Al-Qaeda types, by militant Islamists, by Islamist supremacists whose objective in all of this is to take over the Middle East and get rid of Israel. That's what was happening.
Allow me to translate: America's "spreading democracy" in the Mideast through the barrel of a gun was fine; but the most populous Arab country in the world removing its corrupt and brutal regime on its own without a bloody war was terrible, because we didn't make it happen, we didn't control it. (Like we have controlled events in Iraq and Afghanistan: masterfully, with no unintended consequences.) Oh, and because it made Israel uncomfortable.
Let's be clear: Romney, Rush and the Right are criticizing Obama for not condemning Egypt's peaceful, popular uprising to end 30 years of tyranny. Furthermore, they believe that because Obama did not use U.S. forces to stop it, Obama is responsible for their revolution and its aftermath.
(This simplistic and wrong "It's Obama's fault" line is also incredibly insulting to the hundreds of thousands of brave Egyptians who protested peacefully and faced down the army to secure their freedom from president-for-life Hosni Mubarak.)
(This simplistic and wrong "It's Obama's fault" line is also incredibly insulting to the hundreds of thousands of brave Egyptians who protested peacefully and faced down the army to secure their freedom from president-for-life Hosni Mubarak.)
America's Founding Fathers -- who, by throwing off their colonial yoke, started a process of democratization that has spread for more than 200 years -- must be turning somersaults in their graves at such right-wing criticism.
Whenever Rush, et al start on such a neo-conservative, neo-imperialist bent, all it takes is one question to reveal their bloody fangs: What would you have us do then? We already know the answer: Obama is still mopping up the blood & guts in Afghanistan and Iraq. That's all they know, that's all they've got in their bag of tricks. That, and their impotent tantrums and condemnations that change nothing.
(I could write a lot about the naivety and ignorance of Americans who think or say, "They have democracy now, so why can't they just be like us?" That is, some of us expect these brutalized and divided societies to become immediately like us, with our 230 years of bloody conflict, strife and institution-building. But I'll leave that for another time....)
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| What pathetic sheep! They all turned out because Obama told them to. Revolution -- pfft! |
September 13, 2012 | The Rush Limbaugh Show
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