Secretary of State Pompeo Speaks at American University in Cairo

Ten Years after President Obama spoke at American University in Cairo, Secretary of State Pompeo intentionally uses the same venue to deliver a Trump administration rebuke of the former’s policies in the region. Obama spoke of using ‘soft power;’ his predecessor George Bush II used military force in Iraq and Afghanistan; in contrast Pompeo returned to an “un-Obama” view of the use of force with a more muscular presence, and with promises of “expelling every last Iranian Boot from Syria,” reducing “…the threat of Hezbollah’s missile arsenal…” and remaining “…committed to the complete dismantling of ISIS.”  While Obama reached out to Iran in his speech, Pompeo cites Iran as America’s number one nemesis. Whereas Trump spoke two weeks earlier about withdrawing US troops from Syria, Pompeo promises “America will not retreat until the terror fight [there] is over.” All three 21st century presidents asserted in Cairo and elsewhere, ‘unbreakable commitments to Israeli security.’ (Source)