America seeks to put revolutionary Islamists in charge of Syria

Barry Rubin is pointing to the same disastrous reality that Andrew McCarthy wrote about two months ago: the U.S. government now openly seeks to spread the rule of “Islamism” (i.e. orthodox, sharia-based Islam) in the Mideast, and influential Republicans support this policy.

Rubin writes:

The Syrian civil war has crossed a red line. Some people may think this happened a few weeks or months ago but at any rate it is clearly true now. The prospects for an Islamist (Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist, and Jihadist) takeover have risen high enough that it is better to freeze Western intervention. In other words, the West should not do more to aid the rebellion and should consider stopping its current efforts in that direction.

Here is a fact so shocking that it should be the centerpiece of any discussion over Syria. It is so important I’m going to put it in bold:

The Obama Administration is backing (Islamist) Turkey as the distributor of weapons supplied by (opportunistically pro-Islamist) Qatar. Turkey and Qatar want to give the Muslim Brotherhood a monopoly over receiving weapons even though most of the rebels are non- and even anti-Islamist. As this happens, the Obama Administration is thus working directly to install a revolutionary Islamist regime in Syria that will disrupt the region, help shred, U.S. interests, and battle with Israel for decades to come. A number of Republican senators see no problem with this strategy.

Actually, it’s even worse. Due to historical developments, the Syrian Brotherhood is more radical than its Egyptian counterpart….

Rubin then provides a detailed account of the jostling Muslim factions in Syria and the Arab Mideast generally, far too complicated for my poor head to want to follow.

Rubin continues:

—Reader’s Question of the Day: What does Obama want? Does he want radical Islamist regimes dominating the region? Are his advisors that radical?

Response: As I have tried to explain repeatedly, the Obama Administration has the following view: al-Qaida is evil and a terrible threat and must be wiped out. All other Islamists can be won over if the U.S. shows it is not their enemy. After all, they are not attacking the United States directly. Therefore if the U.S. is good to them, respectful toward Islam, and shows it isn’t afraid of their taking power, they will understand this and their hostility will be reduced. Being in power will moderate them. The main point of origin of this within government was the CIA and, of course, Obama and his appointees in the White House. There are some at the State Department who back this idea but the institution generally has opposed it. Of course, these people follow orders and after a while start to believe what they are saying.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 23, 2012 02:38 PM | Send