Why Are U.S. Embassies On the Run From Radical Islamists Instead of the Other Way Around?

The State Department ordered U.S. embassies and consulates to close in a number of countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia on Sunday. According to Department personnel "a specific threat against a U.S. embassy or consulate," in a Muslim country had been intercepted. The warning revealed that Al Qaeda members have received orders and are in position in order to execute the suspected plot.

A Yemeni soldier inspects a car at a checkpoint on a street leading to the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2013. Security forces closed access roads, put up extra blast walls and beefed up patrols near some of the U.S. diplomatic missions in the Muslim world that Washington ordered closed. (AP/Hani Mohammed)

Among those closed are embassies in Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Yemen, Libya, Algeria, Oman, and Abu Dhabi. Also ordered shuttered were consulates in Dubai and two other Saudi cities. Many of the countries in which embassies were closed have a common thread—support for radical Islam. The 19 embassies will remain closed until at least next Saturday.

Conversely, Israel has zero tolerance for terror. Do you find it a bit surprising that the only U.S. embassy open in the Middle East is the one in Israel? How can it be that in the country being pressured the most to enter into peace negotiations with the Palestine Authority is the country where Arabs are the safest and have the best economic lifestyle of any in the Middle East?The reality is that most of the Muslim countries are simply family owned “thug-ocracies” posing as corporations. The way those countries keep terror organizations from turning on them is by paying them off and/or funding their causes. It’s a “don’t ask—don’t tell” policy.

An enemy is needed in order to have an army. A perfect example of this is the Palestinian crisis. The reality is that the Islamo-fascist regimes do everything in their power to keep the situation from being resolved. If the Palestinian issue were resolved, there would be no enemy against which to incite the masses and blame for all their problems. The people might then turn on their Muslim custodians.

Why instead of having a radical Islam Al Qaeda on the run, does it have U.S. embassies on the run? How can this be possible after 12 years of fighting the war on terror and so many sacrifices? It begins with the refusal by the current U.S. administration to acknowledge that terror exists.

A perfect example is the case of Hasan. An officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Hasan is accused of the murder of 13 and attempted murder of 32 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. Rather than being charged with terrorism, Hasan’s murderous rampage has been labeled “workplace violence" by the Department of Defense. The prosecution, on the other hand, has labeled his act “homegrown terrorism.”

What will it take to jar the West from its comfortable complacency? Because the Liberal Left is fundamentally secular humanist, they bow at the altar of appeasement, believing that evil really doesn’t exist, that people are basically good, and can’t be held accountable for the wrong they do. It’s just better to talk with people, it believes, since we are basically all the same rather than fighting to stop those committing crimes of terror.

The U.S. is under attack from radical Islam because it is seen as a Christian nation, and for no other reason. Israel is also under attack because it is a Jewish nation—no other reason! It is about religion. These two nations, one called the “Great Satan,” and the other the “Little Satan.” Both proclaim Judeo-Christian principles are in the crosshairs of radical Islam. Like it or not, it’s not about our culture.

That the Obama administration refuses to even acknowledge the existence of radical Islam is a major part of the problem. Self-loathing replaces righteous indignation and begets appeasement. Among the Obama elite, the conviction widely held is that there is no military solution to the current problems. It is believed that our own government is a repository of evil and terrorism is a punishment for our past sins. The “We have met the enemy, and he is us,” attitude replaces an effective response with appeasement.

The absence of an impressive Islamic military machine gives many Westerners, especially on the Left, a feeling of disdain. Box cutters and suicide belts make it difficult to perceive this enemy as a worthy opponent. It was Winston Churchill who said in 1935, “The World lacks the democratic courage, intellectual honesty, and moral willingness to act to stop Hitler’s war machine.” Had Hitler been stopped then, 61 million people would not have died during World War II.

Dr. Michael Evans is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His latest novel, The Locket, based on the pursuit, arrest, trial and execution of Adolf Eichmann debuted at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center on June 15, 2013.