Why, despite everything the United States has done for Islamic countries in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia over the years, are Muslims in the region unwilling to cut us a little slack?

What does America have to do to get a little respect? We’ve given their governments generous amounts of economic and military assistance. We’ve taken military action half-a-dozen times to defend them from aggression and repression. Our president bends over backward not to offend their sensitivities.

We understand why Islamic terrorists sacked and burned the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killed Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans. They want to drive us out of the Islamic world back to the shores of North America. Give them an easy opportunity to kill Americans and they’ll take it every time. It’s more difficult to understand why Muslims in general want to bring us down. Or is it?

For decades now we’ve been told that regardless of all we have done for Islamic countries in the region, the reason we are so despised is because of our support for Israel. Muslims in general never have been happy with the United Nations decision to create the State of Israel; Palestinians in particular won’t recognize its right to exist.

OK, we get it. But they also know that every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter has made an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement a core element of his foreign policy. The United States seeks an independent Palestinian state. The Israelis even went the distance to agree to one not long ago and made Yasser Arafat an offer he couldn’t refuse; only he did refuse. How can Muslims hold that against us?

Then there are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. First we went to war in Kuwait and Iraq to take Kuwait back from Saddam Hussein. Practically all the Arab states were with us on that one.

Then al-Qaeda working out of Afghanistan attacked us on 9/11 and we did what any self-respecting superpower would do, we took Afghanistan away from the Taliban and al-Qaeda and gave it back to the Afghani people. We’re still in Afghanistan 10 years later, ensuring the Taliban can’t take it back, but everyone knows we’re not staying much longer. We’ve already announced our withdraw date. We left Iraq when we said we would. What’s the beef?

No, we never did find those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; but a lot fewer Iraqis are being tortured, murdered and gassed these days. You think they would be thankful for that.

Of course, there’s always the reliable decadent American culture. Our women run around half dressed. Booze and drugs are plentiful. People post pornographic and dumb movies on the Internet. We know this offends devout Muslims. We also let women run Fortune 500 companies, run for President, become the secretary of state and fly fighter jets. Unfortunately, this offends many of them as well.

Ok, there are some things about America Muslims don’t like; but why all of a sudden are they making such a big a fuss over something so trivial?

There just has to be some other reason.

Perhaps it’s because, up until now at least, we have successfully thwarted the Islamist-jihadist’s attempts to gain sway over the Islamic world. Could it be that one of those brilliant jihadists leaders that hasn’t yet been taken out by a drone strike has been reading the history of the Vietnam war. Has he figured out when you are losing miserably to the U.S. on the battlefield it’s time for the Islamic equivalent of the 1968 Tet Offensive?

Could it be that al-Qaeda and its supporters were losing so badly, because of everything the U.S. intelligence community and armed forces have done under the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, that they decided to make America look foolish right in the middle of a U.S. presidential election?

Think about it. The offending movie had been out there for a couple months before the September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi. A successful terrorist attack on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, coupled with demonstrations in Cairo over American’s insensitivity to the feelings of Muslims and you have all you need to start flash fire that spreads across the region. All that’s needed is for a few people to pour a little gas on the fire as it spreads.

Apparently the strategy is working. The Obama administration policy of Muslim outreach has been going up in smoke since the Benghazi attack.

You might assume that Islamist-jihadist would want just the opposite. Why would they want to do anything that might get in the way of Barack Obama’s reelection and pave the way for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-time friend Mitt Romney to win the election? Wouldn’t they prefer a more accommodating Obama administration over a Romney administration?

The answer to that question is I don’t believe they care which man becomes the next U.S. president. They don’t believe it matters that much. All they care about is defeating the great Satan.

I have no doubt that many Muslims needed no prompting to demonstrate in front of U.S. and other foreign embassies because they perceived an offense to the Prophet Mohammed. But I’m convinced this is mostly a put up job.

Furthermore, I don’t believe better educated, middle-class Muslims in the region hate us all that much. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Middle East and always found the people I dealt with to be gracious, hospitable, and friendly. Remember all those protesters in Tunis and Cairo last spring. Hardly any of them were burning American Flags.

Hang in there America. Insist that our leaders in Washington, D.C. play a strong leadership role in world and regional affairs, maintain a strong national defense, and stand up for freedom and democracy. We only lose when we quit.