|
In response to
"So nothing from Obama, Clinton, Biden or a named source?"
by
amoxy
|
Nope. Here's the relevant paragraph from the NJ article. (Plus the graph before and after)
Posted by
Ender (aka Ender)
Apr 26 '12, 08:50
|
The Obama administration is adopting the view that it has no choice but to cultivate the Muslim Brotherhoodwhich officially renounced violence decades ago, leading then-dissident radicals such as Ayman al-Zawahiri to join al-Qaidaand other relatively "moderate" Islamist groups emerging as lead political players out of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia, and elsewhere. It's not just Obama-ites and Democrats who are adapting: Among those who met Muslim Brotherhood reps in Washington earlier this month were hawkish Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as well as William Kristol, a zealously pro-Israel neoconservative. Dreier, who is retiring, told National Journal that Shater and the others spoke "at length about democracy, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights, but I'm far more interested in what they do than what they say. The real test will be how they govern."
True enough, but now Washington is ready to let that "real test" go forward. That's what has changed. The emerging view inside the administration is that the United States is entering a post-Qaida era. "The war on terror is over," one senior State Department official who works on Mideast issues told NJ. "Now that we have killed most of al-Qaida, now that people have come to see legitimate means of expression, people who once might have gone into al-Qaida see an opportunity for a legitimate Islamism."
It is no longer the case, in other words, that every Islamist is a potential accessory to terrorists. The one-two punch of the Arab Spring, with its promise of a different form of empowerment than violent jihad, and Obama's savagely successful covert campaign against the worst of the jihadists, al-Qaida, has rendered Islamism less threatening. That means a more evenhanded approach to engaging with Islamists, perhaps to an extent not seen since America's last flirtation with them three decades ago: the "Charlie Wilson's war" of arming and supporting the mujahedeen in Afghanistan against their Soviet occupiers.
|
Responses:
|
