NoisyRoom.net

By: Col. Tom Snodgrass (Ret.)
Right Side News

FDR ignored informed assessments about Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist ideological imperialism.

Obama Is ignoring informed assessments about Islamic jihadist imperialism.

Col. Tom Snodgrass (Ret.), Right Side News

FDR’s Arrogant Ignorance

President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrogantly and ignorantly believed that he, by virtue of his personal charm, could persuade Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin to forsake his well-known ways of foreign policy deceit and mendacity. Shortly after he became president in 1933, FDR decided the U.S. should diplomatically recognize the Communist Bolshevik regime that had come to power in the Soviet Union through bloody revolution sixteen years earlier. When the Russian czar and his family were overthrown in 1917 and murdered a year later, the U.S. had broken off diplomatic relations. The justification for this diplomatic break was soon reinforced by the atrocities committed by the Bolsheviks in their “Red Terror” campaign. The Red Terror was a merciless crusade to eliminate any opposition that resisted Bolshevik rule. The mass murders of opponents were carried out by the Bolshevik secret police, known as the “Cheka,” which was the forerunner of the KGB. One of the regional Cheka chiefs explained the Red Terror as follows in a Bolshevik newspaper:

Do not look in the file of incriminating evidence to see whether or not the accused rose up against the Soviets with arms or words. Ask him instead to which class he belongs, what is his background, his education, his profession. These are the questions that will determine the fate of the accused. That is the meaning and essence of the Red Terror.

This macabre explanation was amplified by Grigory Zinoviev, long time head of the Communist International (Comintern), the Moscow-directed international communist organization dedicated to the overthrow of foreign bourgeois governments, “To overcome of our enemies we must have our own socialist militarism. We must carry along with us 90 million out of the 100 million of Soviet Russia’s population. As for the rest, we have nothing to say to them. They must be annihilated.”

Given the Bolsheviks’ demonstrated bloody repression of their own people and their world revolutionary Comintern subversive organization that was the enemy of all non-communist governments, American diplomats Charles Bohlen, Averell Harriman, Loy Henderson, and George Kennan, men intimately knowledgeable of ruthlessness aims and tactics of Bolshevism, all recommended to FDR that the U.S. should have as few dealings with the Soviet Union as possible. Their reason was simple and straightforward – the Kremlin eventually intended to bring about the violent overthrow of all the countries with which the Soviet Union maintained relations.

FDR and his personal foreign policy advisor, Harry Hopkins, never comprehended the vicious meaning of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism, in spite of being accurately forewarned.

A few months after his March 4, 1933, inauguration, the State Department’s Eastern European Division presented FDR with a paper on how he might proceed in the negotiations for recognition of the Soviet Union. The memorandum, dated July 27, 1933, contained this prescient paragraph:

The fundamental obstacle in the way of the establishment with Russia of the relations usual between nations in diplomatic intercourse is the world revolutionary aims and practices of the rulers of that country. . . . It would seem, therefore, that an essential prerequisite to the establishment of harmonious and trustful relations with the Soviet Government is abandonment by the present rulers of Russia of their world revolutionary aims and the discontinuance of their activities designed to bring about the realization of such aims. More specifically and with particular regard to the United States, this prerequisite involves the abandonment by Moscow of direction, supervision, control, financing, et cetera, through every agency utilized for the purpose, of communist and other related activities in the United States.

FDR and Hopkins misread Stalin for the next twelve years, culminating at Yalta in FDR’s monumental blunder of actually believing that Stalin would keep his promises and treaties guaranteeing an independent Eastern Europe in post-war Europe. Shortly before he died, FDR stated, “Averell [Harriman] is right. We can’t do business with Stalin. He has broken every one of the promises he made at Yalta.”

Why FDR persisted in his willful ignorance of the Soviet intention to spread world communism has been the subject of numerous history books (especially see the chapter, “Duping FDR: ‘Uncle Joe’ and ‘Buddies’,” in Paul Kengor’s excellent DUPES), so suffice to state the obvious and factual here – FDR’s hubris blinded him to the danger of the Soviet threat, even though he was repeatedly and accurately warned.

Obama’s Arrogant Ignorance (And/Or Something Else?)

President Barack H. Obama is following in the footsteps of his Democrat presidential predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in arrogantly and ignorantly treating an existential danger as nothing to be worried about in regard to U.S. national security. In fact, instead of portraying Islamic Sharia law as the incontestable threat it is to the U.S. Constitution, BHO is misleading Americans and others concerning the bellicose nature of jihad and the fact that violent jihad is mainstream Islamic theology, not some radical misinterpretation.

Obama on Jihad: Islam, a peaceful religion, is hijacked by some terrorists

Since BHO is the son and stepson of Muslims and spent his early youth growing up in the Muslim culture of Indonesia, while being officially registered as a Muslim at that time, it is difficult to satisfactorily explain BHO’s apparent willful ignorance of the imperialistic nature of Islam. For instance, BHO has imposed his willful ignorance on the nation’s military and law enforcement forces by ordering suppression of the fact that Islamic law decrees Sharia and secular legal frameworks, like the U.S. Constitution, cannot coexist in the same geographic area. Furthermore, it is all but impossible to believe that BHO is not aware that Muslim law directs followers of Islam to overthrow secular legal frameworks throughout the world and replace them with Islamic Sharia law through jihad. That such Muslim jihadist undermining of non-Islamic legal systems and their replacement with Islamic law is a central organizing principle of Islam is not disputable. Moreover, in view of more than 20,000+ worldwide jihadist terror attacks in the name of “Allah” since 9/11, ignorance of this central Muslim organizing principle on the part of the president of the United States is just not conceivable or believable.

Nevertheless, consider these counterfactual statements about Islam that BHO made in his 2009 Cairo speech that betray a totally unrealistic and misleading concept of Islam and its history:

…throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.

So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America.

I made clear that America is not — and never will be — at war with Islam.

Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism — it is an important part of promoting peace.

Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.

And then there was BHO’s 2012 proclamation to the UN General Assembly triumphantly asserting:

The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.

BHO’s statements are surreal in light of the following Quranic and Sharia instructional commandments to Muslims:

5:51: O you, who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you – then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing [Jewish and Christian] people. ~ The Islamic god, Allah, in the Quran

9:29: Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day [Islamic eschatology] and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger [Muhammad] have made unlawful [that is, do not practice Islamic Sharia jurisprudence] and who do not adopt the religion of truth [Islam] from those [Jews and Christians] who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizyah [Muslim submission tax for non-Muslims] willingly while they are humbled. ~ The Islamic god, Allah, in the Quran

Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada signifying warfare to establish the religion. ~ Islamic Sharia Law

“I have been commanded [by Allah] to fight [all] people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah . . . .” [this recitation is the “Shahada” – recited when declaring oneself a Muslim] ~ Muhammad, Prophet of Islam, Islamic Sharia Law

This surrealism is compounded by BHO’s principal counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, and his description of jihad as a “holy struggle!”

John Brennan (Counter-terrorism Advisor) Says Jihad is Legitimate

Brennan is correct in revising the “War on Terror” mischaracterization, which was a mislabeling hangover from the Bush Administration. President George W. Bush set the cowardly model for all non-Muslim political leaders after 9/11 by focusing his “war” on the tactic of terror rather than concentrating on the perpetrators of terror, Islamic jihadists, and their motivational sources, the Islamic Quran and Sharia. However, for Brennan to portray jihad as a “holy struggle” in the face the Sharia’s authoritative and unambiguous definition – Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada signifying warfare to establish the religion – indicates Brennan is in denial, or more likely, is attempting deception, or possibly both.

Is BHO Duly Warned?

FDR had the benefit of the wisdom of the diplomats Charles Bohlen, Averell Harriman, Loy Henderson, and George Kennan, four of the most knowledgeable Americans concerning Bolshevik plans for world domination. Unfortunately he ignored their sage advice. But moving forward in history to today, does BHO have access to experts on Islam comparable FDR’s knowledgeable diplomatic quartet? Actually he does. Since BHO is touted as an ivy league intellectual and is also a self-proclaimed student of Islam, he is surely familiar with works of two of the most prominent 20th century Islamic leaders and spokesmen, Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution.

These two Islamic leaders leave no doubt as to the objective of Islam:

“It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.” ~ Hassan al-Banna

Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled or incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of [other] countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world. ~ Ayatollah Khomeini

Conclusion

It is impossible to imagine that BHO and Brennan truly misunderstand the explicit Islamic jihadist imperialism mandated in the Quran and Sharia, or the straightforward statements of imperialistic purpose by al-Banna and Khomeini. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, it is possible that they are in denial, as FDR apparently was. But since BHO and Brennan both have long personal histories with the Islamic religion, it is more plausible to believe that they are engaged in a combination of deception motivated by denial.

Those benighted souls, who can read the Quranic suras, Sharia injunctions, and al-Banna and Khomeini statements of Islamic imperialistic purpose above and yet maintain that Islam is benign, suffer from willful blindness (see Andy McCarthy’s excellent Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad) born of the misguided beliefs that either most Muslims ignore the violent injunctions of Islamic scripture and it really is just a tiny minority who are violent Muslim extremists, or that Islam may be violent and extreme, but the religion can be “modernized and civilized” through exposure to democracy and economic development. Alternatively, there is a third possibility that seems to apply to most of the liberal segment of the U.S. population, and that is, the unquestioning belief in mindless multiculturalism, which foolishly maintains that all religions are equal and refuses to even consider the jihadist Quranic suras, Sharia injunctions, and al-Banna and Khomeini statements.

Unfortunately these misguided beliefs don’t reconcile with 1400 violent years of Islamic history. Tens of millions of souls have lost their lives as a result of Islamic jihad over the centuries. Efforts to “reform Islam” have failed utterly. The recent U.S. failed nation-building experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and the increasing political empowerment of Islamic Sharia owing to the “Arab Spring” are tangible proof of the unredeemable quality of Islam for those who have the moral and intellectual fortitude to acknowledge the truth.

Tom Snodgrass RSN Col. Thomas Snodgrass, USAF (retired) served over a year in Peshawar, Pakistan working with Pakistani military intelligence, and he was variously an Intelligence Officer or an International Politico-Military Affairs Officer in assignments in six other foreign countries during a thirty-year military career. Additionally, he was awarded a year’s educational sabbatical teaching and writing as an Air Force Research Associate at the Center for Advanced International Studies, University of Miami, Florida.