The Arab Spring that prompted the ouster of authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya also led to the rise of Islamists who are bent on creating Islamic states that adhere to Shariah law — and that fate could await Syria after dictator Bashar Assad falls.
By what measure does our foreign aid policy make common sense?
Remember when President Obama used to warn Syria's Bashar Assad to stop his mass killing and step down?
Several Washington-based human rights groups are facing criticism for awarding two radical Egyptian Islamists who have endorsed terrorism and expressed hostility toward Israel.
The international Islamist political movement called the Muslim Brotherhood is set to open offices in the rebel-held areas of Syria for the first time since the nation's Baathist rulers crushed it there decades ago.
Before the Boston Marathon bombings, the Obama administration argued for years that there is a big difference between terrorists and the tenets of Islam.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has included Egypt on his first trip to the Mideast in his cabinet role, a subtle message of the White House's concern to maintain strong ties with the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government, political insiders say.
These days, American policy toward the Middle East tends to be dominated by two regional crises.
The dramatic events in Boston last week have given rise to what President Obama would call a "teachable moment." The question is, will we "connect the dots"? More to the point, will our leaders, the media and the rest of us have the intellectual integrity and courage to learn the evident lessons?
