Is There a Role for Reality in US Foreign Policy?--Michael Scheuer

Tweet "To condemn Prime Minister Maliki for being anti-Israeli is, in essence, to reject the way that democracy and self-determination have so far worked out in Iraq. Indeed, America's bipartisan democracy-mongers have made a consistent habit of rejecting or ignoring the results of all the "democratic" elections that have been held since 2000 in the Middle East. Each vote has yielded results that reflect the overwhelmingly anti-Israeli views of Muslim electorates, either by producing actual governments – Iraq and Palestine – or the marked political advance of Islamists in Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. That our leaders are surprised by these results can be explained by one of only two factors: their surprise is feigned and therefore deceitful, or they are ignorant of the history of both America and the Middle East."

"Last week's condemnation of Maliki reveals with stark clarity that the Muslim world remains terra incognita for U.S. governing elites. Nearly 60 years after President Truman recognized the state of Israel to win the domestic pro-Israel vote for the then cash-strapped and vote-needy Democrats, Schumer and Dean have stayed true to that cynical mission, a mission the Republicans have also signed on to heart and soul. More important, the failure of America's elites to see that no genuine U.S. national interests are at stake in the Arab-Israeli conflict and that our model of democracy has little or no relevance in the Islamic world except – as the Founders foresaw – as a symbol, has put Americans in harm's way at home and abroad. Indeed, their reality-free foreign policy has made America a target for the hatred of increasing numbers of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims."