Money cannot buy love! In spite of the investment of billions of dollars in Egypt, Libya and other Mideastern countries, it is evident that Americans are still hated.
Apparently, there was nothing in the agreements when we gave the money that our embassies wouldn’t be burned down or our diplomats murdered.
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As I have watched video of the walls of our embassies being breached by angry mobs and our flag being burned, it has brought home to me that force-feeding democracy may not be in our best interest.
Americans are very generous people, but there are limits to our generosity. We have so many needs in our own country and look forward to the day when we have our troops at home instead of in Afghanistan, where we are losing our brave young men and women (often murdered by the Afghans they are training).
Some survive physically, but too many are returning with disabilities. Sadly, we are spending lots of dollars on traumatic brain injury treatment, prosthetics and other medical treatment to rehabilitate our servicemen and servicewomen to the point where they can either redeploy or try to find a job in the civilian world.
I’m all for democracy for any country that wants it, but let’s wait for them to ask for it, then we’ll help. Democracy will not undo generations of civil wars and hostility between religions and radical groups.
We know that many of these countries have natural resources in abundance and have wealth beyond ours. However, I also know that we as a nation are still in need of job programs for the unemployed, funding for education, and money to fund health care and alternative energy.
Let’s ask President Obama to reconsider our commitments to extremism in Mideastern nations.
Jane Metzler
Yarmouth
Ralph Ginorio’s letter to the editor, “Obama fueling hostile Mideast climate” (Sept. 17), is misguided. With an election approaching and the nation highly polarized, we’re going to hear some easy answers to the complex problems in the Middle East.
Yes, the recent violence is frightening. And yes, the violence is directed against the U.S. and its allies. But is President Obama to blame?
Obama didn’t produce the “Innocence of Muslims” video that set much of this into motion. In fact, he responded to the video and riots exactly as he should have. He denounced the video as bigoted lunacy and the riots as inexcusable.
More importantly, the tumult in the Middle East has a history longer than the most recent rash of sound bites would suggest. U.S. foreign policy in the region has proven disastrous, from the Cold War to the present day.
Consider Iraq. Support for Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran; a war that failed to depose him; another war that deposed him but left civil strife, rather than democracy, in its wake — these breed anti-Americanism.
Does Ginorio really mean that we should be less concerned with ideals when backing foreign leaders? That it doesn’t matter if they practice democracy, as long as they hold the “Islamist mobs” in check? This is upside-down.
Many Islamist movements gained momentum because the U.S. has so often preached democracy while backing tyranny.
The leaders Mr. Ginorio cites as deserving of support, the shah of Iran and Hosni Mubarak, both had questionable human rights records. When the United States holds up democracy as the greatest form of government the world has known, it’s not the likes of them that it has in mind.
Let’s change course in the Middle East. Let’s learn from the past and develop a smarter foreign policy — one that truly reflects democratic values.
Matt Brown
Portland
Your Sept. 14 editorial criticized Gov. Romney’s comments regarding an official statement made by our embassy in Egypt apologizing for a YouTube video, released in mid-July, that Islamists view as offensive (Our View, “Romney statement on Libya premature, reckless”).
You stated that his comments “could easily be read as support for the makers of a video that has offended many Muslims … just the kind of help the killers were hoping for.”
The Obama administration later decided the embassy’s statement wasn’t cleared by Washington and directed them to withdraw it. That last point was left out of your opinion.
A more appropriate topic for your editorial would be the abject failure of the president’s foreign policy in the Middle East. The policy of appeasement, apology and “leading from behind” has been disastrous for U.S. interests.
The Arab Spring gave opportunities for the seeds of democracy but has allowed the evil forces of Islamic fundamentalists to fill leadership vacuums as the Islamic Brotherhood did in Egypt. Today, our embassies are being attacked throughout the region.
The president continues to claim the attacks are because of the YouTube video. He has failed to provide leadership in this crisis, he continues to blame others for his policy failures, he is too busy to meet with the Israeli prime minister, but he remains active taping late-night talk shows and campaigning. Why aren’t we reading about any of this in your paper?
I recognize your editorial policy must follow your owners’ liberal agenda. However, I’ve decided I don’t have to read it; please cancel my subscription.
Donald A. Lamontagne
lieutenant general, U.S. Air Force (retired)
Shapleigh
The recent anti-American uprising in the Arab world is an example of the long and deep dislike of America as epitomizing the entire Western world.
I wonder if the anti-Muhammad film may have been planted to stir up the subsurface of Arab anger. That is to be determined.
In any case, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should apologize and rebut the implications of the film.
To my mind, the U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere have heated up the underlying anger and must be stopped immediately.
Philip Thompson
Portland
I think it is a disgusting act of leadership within our federal government when the folks in Washington, D.C., can send billions of dollars in aid to countries populated with people who want to kill us, but they cannot increase funding to the fuel assistance program to help senior citizens on fixed incomes and others who need help keeping warm while the cost of heating oil continues to rise!
Lindley Deering
Raymond
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