HOW WE ARE SEEN – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  Osama bin Laden used to say that, in the Mideast, it's the strong horse that wins.  In fact, it's that way all over the world.  The world loves a winner, and hates a loser. 

Of course, the left-wing "sophisticates" express hatred for the United States when we use our power, but now that the world has seen six years of American weakness, the sophisticates don't seem quite so sophisticated.

How are we seen today in the Mideast, where most of the current action is?  Not well.  From Gatestone Institute: 

While the Egyptian government has been waging war on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic radical groups, the U.S. Administration and some Europeans are continuing to hamper efforts to combat terrorism.

Many Egyptians and moderate Arabs and Muslims were shocked to hear that the U.S. State Department recently hosted a Muslim Brotherhood delegation. They were equally shocked when an EU court decided to remove Hamas from the bloc's list of terror groups.

The State Department's hosting of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders has outraged Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who has been waging a relentless war against the organization over the past year.

One member of the delegation, Muslim Brotherhood judge Waleed Sharaby, posed for a picture while at Foggy Bottom, as he held up the organization's four-finger "Rabia" sign. (The gesture is named for Cairo's Rabia Square, where counter-demonstrations backing ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi -- who is from the Muslim Brotherhood -- took place in August 2013.)

"If the White House is out to offend some of its closest Arab allies and is intent on heightening their suspicions, it's succeeded," wrote Middle East expert Linda S. Heard. "If there's a plot, then it's unfolding," she added. "Just two days after the controversial visit, the Brotherhood called for a war against their fellow Egyptians."

A statement issued by the Muslim Brotherhood said, "It is incumbent upon everyone to be aware that we are in a process of a new phase, where we summon what is latent our strength, where we recall the meanings of jihad and prepare ourselves, our wives, our sons, our daughters, and whoever marched on our path to a long, uncompromising fight, and during this stage we ask for martyrdom."

COMMENT:   Read the rest of the piece.  It is frightening to think that Obama will be in office for two more years.  He is betraying our friends, appeasing our enemies.  And yet, questions about him, about who he really is, go unanswered.

February 4, 2015