How can an administration that believes that Islamists need a reason to attack us apart from their default hatred of infidels conduct a coherent foreign policy?

Even if its assessment were correct, how can someone who is presumably sophisticated enough to become the so-called leader of the Free World believe he can convert Islamists overnight into fawning admirers of a new and improved America under his rule?

Yet that is precisely what Obama professed to believe. When campaigning for the presidency, he said: “We will restore our moral standing in the world. … I truly believe that the day I’m inaugurated, not only does the country look at itself differently but the world looks at America differently. If I’m reaching out to the Muslim world, they understand that I’ve lived in a Muslim country and I may be a Christian but I also can understand their point of view. … The world will have confidence that I am listening to them and that our future and our security is tied up with our ability to work with other countries in the world. That will ultimately make us safer.”

Obama’s lofty confidence on the matter didn’t wane once he was in office. He said in April 2009, “I would like to think that with my election and the early decisions that we’ve made … you’re starting to see some restoration of America’s standing in the world.”

In his stunningly ambitious and arrogantly naive Cairo speech, Obama said, “I’ve come here … to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.”

And just this year, Obama said, “We’ve strengthened our alliances (and) restored respect for the United States around the world.” Soon thereafter, he said, “One of the proudest things of my three years in office is helping to restore a sense of respect for America around the world.”

But polls reflect that despite Obama’s reset of our relations with Muslims, he is less popular in the Muslim world than was the dreaded President George W. Bush, and America is less popular with Muslims under Obama than it was under Bush.

A new survey of the president and his policies in 21 countries by the Pew Global Attitudes Project shows that “global approval of President Barack Obama’s policies has declined significantly since he first took office…. In nearly every country where trends are available, support for Obama’s international policies has declined over the last three years. … Among the EU countries surveyed in both 2009 and 2012, a median of 78 percent approved of Obama’s policies in 2009, compared with 63 percent now. Among Muslim nations, the median has slipped from 34 percent to 15 percent. Major declines have also taken place in China, Japan, Russia and Mexico.”

Yet Obama continues to maintain the ruse that through his magical rhetorical bouquets to Islamists, he has dramatically reduced their animosity toward us. For him to acknowledge that they attacked us in Egypt and Libya because they still hate us would be an admission that he has failed in his promise to make them love us, so he is scapegoating the anti-Muslim amateur video of an unknown filmmaker.

In response to a reporter’s observation that a “growing anti-American sentiment” is occurring in Cairo, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “I would urge you not to draw too many conclusions, because we’ve also had some very positive developments in our relationship with Egypt.” In the “new Egypt,” she bragged, “protest is possible.”

Nuland’s gushy affirmation of free expression rights for Egyptians is in stark contrast to the Obama administration’s all-out effort to chill the free speech rights of the hapless video producer. Indeed, 99 percent of the administration’s outrage over the attacks was dedicated not to the terrorist attackers but to the filmmaker.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said on ABC’s “This Week,” “What happened in Cairo, in Benghazi, in many other parts of the region was a direct result of a heinous and offensive video that was widely disseminated that the U.S. government had nothing to do with, which we have made clear is reprehensible and disgusting.” Rice added, “We are quite popular in Libya.”

Unhappily for the administration, The Daily Caller reports that “Libyan officials and locals have shredded (Obama’s) defensive claim that a spontaneous protest against a Californian’s anti-Islam video caused the Sept. 11 killing of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.”

Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif said on NPR, “The idea that this criminal and cowardly act was a spontaneous protest that just spun out of control is completely unfounded and preposterous.” It was, he said, a military-style attack.

The Daily Caller notes that “accumulating media reports – and Libyans’ statements – suggest the administration severely underestimated the danger of jihadis in Libya.”

Yes, and the administration remains in denial about the dangers of jihadis throughout the world because, in its narcissistic worldview, Obama has fundamentally transformed Islamist sentiment toward the United States and made us safer.

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