The Obama Middle East Tour

So, President Obama is on his way to Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden has made another audio tape from the great beyond to commemorate the event. Osama claims that Obama is doing nothing but following in President Bush's footsteps, and I'd take that to be yet another da'wa.

It's a challenge to do what the Islamists want, or else face jihad.

It is also curious that the tape was sent to al Jazeera and not released to the Internet, as has typically been done in the past because al Qaeda routinely accused al Jazeera of editing and distorting the messages. Howie at the Jawa Report has more.

In the meantime, the Administration is going to apologize for the mistakes of the Bush administration to soothe bad feelings by Muslims around the world. This Administration continues its apologia tour, and the end result is an America that looks weaker to its enemies and gets our allies thinking twice about stepping up to assist going forward. It also raises doubts in the minds of those who might seek our assistance or look for alliances going forward because the Administration is doing more to cozy up to bad regimes than they are keeping good relations with existing friends and allies.

What does an apology get the United States here? It isn't going to stop the Islamists. Instead, it will have the opposite effect - encouraging further depravities because they think the US is unwilling to do what is necessary to stop them. The murder, mayhem, and bloodshed will continue at a greater rate because the jihadis sense weakness from the White House.

So, how to reconcile the fact that al Qaeda thinks that President Obama is continuing President Bush's policies, while Obama is changing the rhetoric? Well, that's it, isn't it? Obama is changing the rhetoric, while keeping the Bush era framework for fighting against the jihad. The names and phrases used might change, but the goals are substantively the same for the moment.

This administration's motives are mercurial and the President will say what he must based on the situation and the crowd, each with an expiration date. Pushing for a peace deal between Israel and its Arab neighbors is a fool's errand when those neighbors continue agitating for Israel's destruction and making no effort to hide their intentions.