Obama's charm offensive and the

global jihad
By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist / February 4, 2009

EARLY IN HIS presidency, Jimmy Carter set about to a letter US policy toward
the Soviet Union. Six days after his inauguration he sent a letter to Soviet ruler
Leonid Brezhnev, hailing the two countries' "common efforts towards formation
of a more peaceful, just, and humane world" and saluting Brezhnev's supposed
"aspiration for strengthening and preserving. . . peace." In a commencement
address at Notre Dame, he declared that Americans had shed their "inordinate
fear of communism." In the months that followed, Carter slashed the defense
budget, scrapped the B-1 bomber, welcomed the Sandinista coup in Nicaragua,
and launched diplomatic relations with Cuba's dictator, Fidel Castro.

It wasn't until the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 that Carter finally woke
up to his naiveté. Moscow's brutal aggression "made a more dramatic change in
my opinion of what the Soviets' ultimate goals are," he admitted, "than
anything they've done in the previous time that I've been in office."

Carter's failure to understand the threat posed by the Soviet Empire had costly
consequences for America and the world. Will that pattern now be repeated
with Barack Obama and the threat from radical Islam?

Ever since taking office two weeks ago, Obama has been at pains to proclaim a
change in US-Muslim relations. In his inaugural address he invited "the Muslim
world" to embark on "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual
respect." Six days later he gave Al-Arabiya, an Arabic-language satellite
channel, his first televised interview as president. This week he continued his
charm offensive with a friendly letter to the Organization of the Islamic
Conference. He has promised to deliver a major address in an Islamic capital by
spring.

The president cannot be faulted for using his bully pulpit to reach out to the
world's Muslims, especially given his Muslim roots and family ties. But running
through his words is a disconcerting theme: that US-Muslim tensions are a
recent phenomenon brought on largely by American provincialism, heavy-
handedness, and disrespect. Missing is any sense that the United States has
long been the target of jihadist fanatics who enjoy widespread support in the
Muslim world.

"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your
enemy," Obama said, although "we sometimes make mistakes" and "have not
been perfect," and even though "too often the United States starts by dictating"
and fails to use "the language of respect."

Such apologetic pandering is inexcusable. For decades, as commentator Charles

Krauthammer noted last week, "America did not just respect Muslims, it bled
for them." To liberate oppressed Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait,
Afghanistan, and Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Americans risked - and in some
cases lost - their lives. Respect? Not even the Islamist atrocities of 9/11
provoked American leaders to treat Islam with disdain. "We respect your faith,"
George W. Bush earnestly told the world's Muslims on Sept. 20, 2001. "Its
teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of
Allah blaspheme the name of Allah."

Even more troubling is Obama's seeming cluelessness about US-Muslim history.

"The same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as
recently as 20 or 30 years ago - there's no reason why we can't restore that," he
said on Al-Arabiya.

Well, let's see. Twenty years ago, American hostages were being tortured by
their Hezbollah captors in Beirut and hundreds of grief-stricken families were
in mourning for their loved ones, murdered by Libyan terrorists as they flew
home for Christmas on Pan Am Flight 103. Thirty years ago, the Ayatollah
Khomeini seized power in Iran, proclaimed America "the Great Satan," and
inspired his acolytes to storm the US embassy and hold scores of Americans
hostage. That same year Islamist mobs destroyed the US embassies in Pakistan
and Libya, and staged anti-American riots in other countries.

Radical Islam's hatred of the United States is not a recent phenomenon, it has
nothing to do with "respect," and it isn't going to be extinguished by sweet
words - not even those of so sweet a speaker as our new president. Sooner or
later, Obama must confront an implacable reality: The global jihad, like the
Cold War, will end only when our enemies lose their will to fight - or when we
do. Let us hope he's a quicker study than Jimmy Carter.

Jeff Jacoby can be reached at jacoby@globe.com.