| Visitors Now: | |
| Total Visits: | |
| Total Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Why Obama Must Go
American Thinker
By J. R. Dunn
One overlooked influence on Barack Obama’s political philosophy and governing style (if those are the terms I’m groping for) involves the Islamosocialist dictator typical of Islamic states during the mid-20th century.
This class of ruler was washed up in the wake of the colonial period, as the Western imperial states retreated with no serious efforts to assure stable governments left behind them. Strongmen then stepped into the vacuum.
Superficially, these leaders resembled Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the legendary figure who, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, took Turkey by the scruff of the neck and dragged it into the modern age. But Kemal was sui generis. None of his successors had his ability or his vision, or were able to obtain the same results.
The prototype of the post-colonial Islamosocialist tyrant was Gamel Abdel Nasser, an Egyptian army officer who rose from lower-middle-class origins (he was the son of a postman) to mastery of Egypt. Nasser joined the army at a young age. During WWII, he was involve d in a number of questionable escapades, among them a scheme to turn Egypt over to Rommel. After the war, he founded the Association of Free Officers, a group of disgruntled junior officers who after several false tries succeeded in overthrowing the almost sublimely corrupt King Farouk. Nasser in short order edged aside General Muhhamed Naguib, the new regime’s figurehead, and, after consolidating his position, made himself president for life. Theatrically handsome and with considerable personal charisma, Nasser enthralled the Egyptian populace and the Arab world beyond.
Unfortunately, Nasser’s accomplishments failed to match his image. In hopes of creating a pan-Arab state with himself as leader, he attempted to set up a political condominium with Syria in the form of the United Arab Republic (UAR), which foundered after only three years. He fomented several failed wars with Israel, ending up with his own personal version of Vietnam in the Yemen War (1962-1967), and initiated a number of economic schemes which succeeded only in squandering Egypt’s potential.
His one major success was facing off the combined forces of Great Britain and France after his seizure of the Suez Canal in 1956. A planned October invasion by British and French forces was cut short by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who threatened to ruin the British pound if the invasion proceeded. (Patton, on the other hand, would have gone all in.) Although the city of Alexandria took a beating from British bombers, and Egypt’s army was once again whipped by the Israelis (who were in on the operation), Nasser came out still in possession of the canal, and smelling like a rose.
This success gave him enormous cachet in the third world. Nasser became the model for leaders of developing countries in every corner of the planet, Islamic or otherwise.
