NEWS FROM:
ANDY MARTIN /2012
"The Right
Republican" for
President of the
United States
Campaign mail:
P. O. Box 1851
New York, NY10150-1851
(866) 706-2639
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE:
Republican Presidential Candidate Andy Martin analyzes the upheaval in the Arab
world
Andy
is a highly respected independent Middle East expert with over forty
years of experience in the Middle East and Asia
(PALM BEACH, FL)(January 29, 2011)
[NOTE:
Most Americans probably initially became aware of Andy Martin because of
his efforts to secure the release of Barack Obama's secret Hawaiian
birth certificate. But around the world he has been known as a
highly-respected independent foreign policy analyst who specializes in Asia and the Middle East.
He first went to Libya and Egyptexactly forty years ago, in 1971. In 1979 and
1980 he was in Iran during the hostage crisis. After the ill-fated
invasion of Iraq in 2003 he lived in Baghdad.]
ANDY MARTIN ON THE
CHAOS IN EGYPT AND THE MIDDLE EAST
I had planned to complete Parts Two and Three of
my promised State of the Union Response by now. However, I feel you will
benefit if I defer those views for a couple of days, and provide my
insight into why the Middle East is falling apart and my suggestions on how
American foreign policy has to change.
Politics used to stop at the water's edge.
Republicans and Democrats understood that a unified foreign policy best
served America's interests. That approach was abandoned in the
1960's. I am extending an open hand to President Barack Obama to create a
bipartisan foreign policy task force that can advise the White House
how to avoid looking stupid in the Middle East and around the world.
The current chaos in Egypt is a
replay of the events which led to the fall of the Shah of Iran over
thirty years ago. The Shah's fall was the result of systemic failures in
U. S.foreign policy. Instead of freeing the Iranian people, the
"Islamic Revolution" has now enslaved Iranians for decades in a
malignant theocracy.
American media still do not understand our
interests in the Arab world, or why our interests are suddenly
threatened. I had hoped to do a column last week on the "First Domino," Tunisia, which
has fallen, suggesting there would be other dominos that would also
collapse. But Egypt is falling faster than I can write.
The Mubarek
dictatorship is over. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's continuing
mealy-mouthed support for Mubarek confirms in my mind that the United States
lacks any foreign policy in the Middle
East.
U. S.
interests are often submerged or ignored. Nowhere in the media has it
ever been reported, for example, that the U. S. State Department has a
critical foreign language facility in Tunisia that could be endangered. Or that if Jordan were to
fall, the CIA'sMiddle East headquarters would be eliminated. Our media have
largely towed the "party line" and that party line is now collapsing.
There are hundreds of
millions of people in the Arab world who have never known freedom, who
have never known democracy, who have been hostages in their own
homelands and who are enslaved by their corrupt regimes. Most of these
governments unfortunately enjoy the support of the United States.
Some of these repressed people turn to militant Islam as an outlet for
their frustration at being denied basic human rights.
The U. S. response
to foreign abuses is generally to pretend there is "no problem," and to
plan as though a perpetual "business as usual" approach will suffice.
President Barack Obama went to Egypt and visited the vile Mubarek dictatorship in
2009, to deliver a speech calling for "freedom." What an insult to the
intelligence of Egyptians, and toAmerica itself.
Clinton's
remarks in the past few days have been complete nonsense. She "views
with concern" and "condemns violence" while the Egyptian regime we have
dealt with is fast disappearing and while the instruments of the
Egyptian police state are murdering demonstrators.
Who lost Egypt?
Republicans and Democrats did. The Republican Party is as culpable as
the Democratic Party for our foreign policy failures. This is a
bipartisan collapse. [I was a strong critic of President George Bush's Middle East
policies and his invasion of Iraq.
So I have not hesitated to call out both
parties on their cockeyed foreign policies.]
The ill-fated invasion of Iraq, which
strengthened Iran and weakened democratic forces across the Arab
world, postponed the upheaval we are now witnessing.
Is Egypt
irretrievably lost? Not at all. Egyptians are not radicals, and few
Egyptians would vote to enslave themselves under another Islamic regime.
So there is great potential in Egypt if only Clinton and Obama would stop mouthing
platitudes and start talking sense to people in the Arab world.
I went to Egypt to assess
the situation after President Gamal Nasser died in 1971.
There was
concern then, as now, that the removal of a strong leader might lead in
unknown directions. In 1979 and 1980 I was in Iran and Afghanistan. I
saw the mistakes firsthand that were made by President Carter. In 2003 I
was in Baghdad, living in a city that was "liberated" by U. S. troops
only to fall victim of an American bureaucracy that was locked behind
closed doors in the Green Zone. I coined the phrase "EmeraldCity" to describe our fortress-ridden mission that
had no idea what was happening on the streets of Iraqi cities.
Unlike any other
Republican presidential candidate, I have lived abroad, spoken the
languages, studied the cultures, and worked successfully with local
people around the world. Unlike any other Republican candidate I
actually have a real foreign policy record you can dig out on the
Internet. You can see what I have written in the last decade and see if
you agree or disagree with my predictions, most of which have been
extremely accurate or are on target.
So where do we go from here? In a few lines, here
is my advice to both Republicans and Democrats.
First, President Obama
should create and convene a bipartisan crisis council to deal with
developments the Middle East. What we are witnessing today, and will be
witnessing in the days ahead, is a generational shift. Young people in
the Arab world, who live without hope and without a future, and who yet
are connected to the endlessly alluring outside world, are about to
overthrow the old order and overthrow America's God-forsaken foreign policy.
Second, we need to stop
living in a "pretend" world and start living in the real world. Obama
has discredited the word "change," but change is coming to the Middle East.
We need to "flood the zone" with Americans committed to freedom and
democracy, not with mealy-mouthed bureaucrats that use meaningless
expressions such as "viewing with concern" the slaughter of innocent
civilians by Mubarek's praetorian guard.
It's time for straight talk and plain talk. The
controversial Wikileaks controversy has released documents that show
American diplomats often talk one way in public and entirely the
opposite in private. With appropriate politeness, our private views must
become public policy.
Third, especially as regards Egypt, we need
to announce that we are prepared to assist in a transitional government
if free elections and democracy are respected. There will be no Mubarek
"coronation election" in the fall. That approach is dead. There will be
no generational transfer of power to Mubarek's son, Gamal Mubarek. The
"Mubarek Dynasty," like Iran's "Pahlavi Dynasty" before it, is kaput.
Fourth, we need to stop
thinking of Arabs as being beneath us, and start thinking of them as
what they are: ordinary people who in the words of the Statute of
Liberty are "yearning to breathe free." At the same time we need to stop
toadying to Arab dictators and potentates. We should adopt rigid
criteria for freedom and democracy as the standards by which we allocate
any foreign aid. No more game playing. We have only been fooling
ourselves by closing our eyes to the obvious abuses of our "allies."
One of the reasons I
opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was that U. S. leaders had no idea
where the process would lead. They were locked into a 90-day horizon.
Notwithstanding Republican and Democratic platitudes, Iraq is still a
very unstable place. Now that U. S. forces are finally withdrawing from
Iraq, and Obama presents the profile of a leader who is marching America
into decline, Obama's weakness is unleashing forces that
are going to become a powerful wave for "change" in nation after nation,
and not always for the good.
There is currently a vacuum in the Middle East.
History and politics never allow a vacuum to exist for very long.
Whether Egypt becomes a democratic nation, and continues to
partner with the United States in an association of free nations, or whether Egypt falls
behind the Iron Curtain of Militant Islam, depends on our response and
reaction to current events. Both Obama and Clinton have added to our
problems, not guided us to reasonable solutions. They may have traveled
overseas as U. S.politicians in diplomatic cocoons; neither has any
real foreign policy experience. (The extent of Obama's foreign travels
before the presidency remain, of course, a source of controversy and
mystery.)
I am on
the right side of history and I am experienced and capable of leading
Republicans and Americans to the right side of history. As a general
rule, we should stay out of the internal affairs of other nations. But
when we do get involved, it should be to foster democracy not
dictatorship.
Instead
of allowing potential Republican presidential candidates to blather on
(I am the only formally announced Republican presidential candidate at
this time), it is time for Republican voters and Republican leaders
across America to start asking hard questions of the
"candidates," real questions not softies. We live in a real world, not a
make-believe political dollhouse.
You can ask me hard questions, and you will get
candid and informed responses. Can you say the same about the other
potential Republican candidates? You be the judge.
[Within the past hour
we have just confirmed plans to open our campaign in Denver,Colorado on
February 13th. Details to follow.]
--------------------------
--------------------------
LINKS TO THIS STORY: (cut and paste the entire link below and not just the underlined
portion):
--------------------------
LISTEN TO ANDY'S TALK RADIO
INTERVIEWS(cut and paste
the entire link below andnot just the underlined portion):
[See December 29th entry, for two-part podcast]
To hear Andy in
Denver go to www.khow.com,
click on Peter Boyles show, go to left margin for "Past Shows" and look
for January 7, 2011 and December 31, 2010 Andy Martin audio (you can
download) (Boyles can also be heard on EinhornPress link below)
--------------------------
Bloggers go wild over Andy's campaign:
(These
are totally independent blog postings and are not part of Andy's
official campaign; we are not
responsible for the content):
NewsandPictures.aspx
MartintheFirstOfficial2012Republican
PresidentialCandidate.aspx
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ABOUT ANDY: Chicago Public Radio calls Andy Martin a "boisterous
Internet activist." Andy is the legendary New York and Chicago-based
muckraker, author, Internet columnist, radio talk show host, broadcaster
and media critic. He has over forty years of background in radio and
television and is the dean of Illinois media and communications. He promotes his
best-selling book, "Obama: The Man Behind The Mask" [www.OrangeStatePress.com]
and his Internet movie "Obama: The Hawaii' Years" [www.BoycottHawaii.com]. Martin
has been a leading corruption fighter in Illinois for over forty years.
He is currently sponsoring www.AmericaisReadyforReform.com.
See also www.FirstRespondersOnline.us
Andy is the
Executive Editor and publisher of the "Internet Powerhouse,"www.ContrarianCommentary.com.
He comments on regional, national and world events with more than four
decades of investigative and analytical experience. He holds a Juris
Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and is a
former adjunct professor of law at the City University of New York
(LaGuardia CC, Bronx CC).
UPDATES:
www.twitter.com/AndyMartinUSA
www.Facebook.com/AndyMartin
Andy's
columns are also posted at ContrarianCommentary.blogspot.com;
ContrarianCommentary.wordpress.com.
ContrarianCommentary.typepad.com
[NOTE: We try to
correct any typographical errors in our stories; find the latest version
on our blogs.]
--------------------------
© Copyright by Andy Martin 2011 All
rights reserved
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