As America retreats from the Middle East, like it or not, Egypt is now the new front line in the global war against Islamic jihad, or “the war on terror” as we once called it. Now we don’t call it much of anything anymore. Or at least we are not supposed to. We just apologize for America and appease the radicals who want to kill us.

Despite billions and billions in aid to despotic regimes and decades of wishful thinking, we are worse off now overseas under Obama than both Bush I and II combined. What otherwise should have been a “model of democracy” in Egypt is now spinning out of control toward an all out Syrian-style civil war.

Hello? White House?... anyone home?

By any measure, the amount of blood and fury flowing in Egypt after the ouster of Islamic Brotherhood President Morsi is beyond crisis proportions. Even if the military could restore order, the intractable political quagmire between moderates who demand a secular government and the radicals who will settle for nothing less than Islamic thuggery — aint goin’ away any time soon.

Yet our beloved president still insists that the military should free ousted dictator Morsi and restore him to power? Right. That sounds like an appropriate solution, since our government has a proven track record of picking despotic losers. Be careful what you ask for, America, because you might just get it. Much like the definition of insanity; we do the same stupid thing over and over and expect a different result. Like re-electing the clown in the White House.

Egypt got its democracy and Morsi was “democratically elected”... the political panacea that Hillary and the buffoons at the State Department traveling circus all wanted. But the Egyptians got “democracy” for only about 10 nanoseconds and Pandora’s box was (Ta-dah!) opened. President Morsi then quickly assumed dictatorial powers, like Adolf Hitler, whose rise to power on a hijacked democratic process plunged the globe into World War II.

For this very reason, our American Founders rejected pure democracy as a form of government in favor a constitutional republic that recognized certain fundamental and inalienable civil rights. The Founders clearly understood that when a majority usurps the rights of a minority, you get mob rule, tyranny and despotism. Radical Islam and sharia law are not only incompatible with any form of representative government, they contradict the very foundational freedoms the sleeping Western World takes for granted at its peril.

Tolerating intolerance and appeasing radical Islam is suicidal. But somehow it is “politically correct”? Sorry, I just don’t get that. What am I missing? Do the architects of “Middle East democracy” in our government actually favor the rise of radical Islam, or are they simply ignorant Neville Chamberlians on the wrong side of history? Either way, the Middle East as we once knew it has changed fundamentally for the worse under the failed leadership of Mr. Obama, who once upon a time in La-la Land, tried to “reach out” to the Islamic world with a “greater understanding.”

My own better understanding tells me that not only is the fragile peace between Israel and Egypt coming to an abrupt end as a direct result of this new touchy-feely American “understanding,” our credibility and status in the world has been reduced to that of a stupor power since Obama took office.

While the American equipped Egyptian army tries to restore order, Christians are being targeted by angry Muslim mobs and churches burned to the ground. Yet, there is no condemnation or outrage from our government when Christians are killed, only complicit whimpering and whining about “allowing for peaceful protest” by the Muslim Brotherhood. But why worry at all about the Middle East going up in flames when there are so many other things that demand our apathy here at home? It’s not like the price of oil and gas will be adversely affected. No, of course not.

So eat, drink and be merry! The so called “economy” is “roaring back to life” (!) even as employers cut your hours to dodge the draconian requirements of Obamacare. Really, who needs the all problems associated with a dictatorship in Egypt when we have our very own homegrown tyranny to worry about? I mean, it’s not like there are any REAL scandals out there or abuses of power by this administration that have been swept under the rug by a complicit media. No, never. Not in America.

While the president downs fried clams with abandon on Martha’s Vineyard and plays golf like Tiger would, the Middle East descends into a new much darker dark age. Pakistan is a mess, Libya remains a war zone, Syria is engulfed in civil war, Iraq is reverting back to sectarian violence and both Yemen and Egypt are on the brink of un-holy civil war.

Yet America has the audacity to pontificate about “restarting the Middle East peace process” with the Palestinians, as if our government actually had any real power to change anything for the better. (Excuse me for just a moment while I laugh.) American foreign policy, if it exists at all, is a joke.

The Obama clown may be banned in Missouri, but the clowns of misery are still very much alive and well in Washington, D.C.

Seymour is a resident of Kalispell.