There are several debates when it comes to Barack Obama. One has to do with whether he is more Marxist or more Muslim. The answer may involve his usage of one to promote the elevation of the other. Perhaps there is no clear-cut answer but Obama’s continued reliance on Zbigniew Brzezinski as one of his most trusted foreign policy adivsers may help indicate which ideology he ultimately reveres most.

When it came to the U.S. support of the Mujahideen to help fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, Ronald Reagan often gets the lion’s share of credit/blame but it was Brzezinski who – in the later years of the Carter administration – advocated for and helped implement that very strategy as Carter’s National Security Advisor.

Brzezinski was born in Warsaw, Poland and watched the Russians and Nazis invade his home country from where his father was stationed in Canada. This is believed to have contributed very strongly to his hawkish stance when it came to the 20th Century Soviets. While he was National Security Advisor for Carter’s entire term, it was Brzezinski who advocated aggressive, covert action be taken against the Soviets by supporting the Mujahideen (Taliban) with weapons.

In 1998, Brzezinski gave an interview to Le Nouvel Observateur, a French Weekly Magazine and was surprisingly candid:

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.

In a video from 1979 that purports to show Brzezinski speaking with Mujahideen fighters, he can be heard telling them that God is with them:

Brzezinski clearly miscalculated and underestimated the reach and aspirations of Islam in 1979 and in 1998. Does he still?

Though Brzezinski rightly expressed concerns that the ‘Arab Spring’ could turn into the ‘Arab Winter’, he essentially advocated a repeat of his 1979 Afghanistan strategy in Libya, saying about the prospect of removing Muammar Gadhafi:

“I concluded that, if we didn’t act it would be worse.”

How’s that working out? After Gadhafi was overthrown, four Americans were murdered in Benghazi and the U.S. abandoned its embassy in Tripoli. Those of us with much less worldly experience knew it was a bad idea. How and why would Brzezinski get it so wrong?

Pro-Muslim Brotherhood Senator John McCain – who referred to the Mujahideen in Libya as his “heroes” – expressed tremendous excitement in 2011 at the prospect of the Arab Spring expanding into Russia and China. Check out what he said at the 2011 U.S.-Islamic World Forum:

Brzezinski has a history of supporting Islamic fundamentalists over Russia. His reason for doing so in 1979 – based on his 1998 interview – is that the Soviet empire was a greater threat than “some stirred-up Moslems”. Indications are that he may still hold this view. Forget whether his position is right or wrong and consider what it says about Obama’s position – Muslim over Russian.

In 1997, Brzezinski wrote a book entitled, the Grand Chessboard. An excerpt from the description reads as follows:

Eurasia is the ”grand chessboard” on which America’s supremacy will be ratified and challenged in the years to come. The task facing the United States, he argues, is to manage the conflicts and relationships in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East so that no rival superpower arises to threaten our interests or our well-being.

Over the years, Brzezinski sided with the Muslim Chechens against the Russians and pressed the Clinton administration to be more aggressive in helping the Muslims in Bosnia.

Much has changed since 1997 but Brzezinski’s anti-Russian streak is still firmly in place. When Russia invaded Crimea, Brzezinski was extremely critical of the move, writing in an op-ed:

Putin’s thuggish tactics in seizing Crimea offer some hints regarding his planning. He knew in advance that his thinly camouflaged invasion would meet with popular support from the Russian majority in Crimea. He was not sure how the thin and light Ukrainian military units stationed there would react, so he went in masked like a Mafia gangster.

Brzezinski doesn’t seem to talk like that about Turkey or Erdogan.

In 1998, Brzezinski wrote, “Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire” while arguing for expanding NATO to include Ukraine. As Shoebat.com has reported, one of the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Crimea has been a deadline being set by Putin for all Islamic texts to be turned over.

There is clearly a fixation on the part of Brzezinski that controlling Eurasia is key to U.S. dominance. However, what he’s clearly been missing is that Turkey is the country that has been seeking Eurasian dominance while NATO countries continue to view it as an ally.

Whether you agree with Brzezinski’s positions or not misses the point. The point is that the incredibly Muslim-friendly Obama seems to.

How does all this square with Frank Marshall Davis, a confirmed member of the Soviet Russian Communist Party USA (CPUSA) being a childhood mentor of Obama for so many years? Vernon Jarrett, the father-in-law of Obama’s closest and most trusted advisor Valerie Jarrett was a close colleague of Davis when the two lived in Chicago years before Obama’s birth. Obama himself boasted about hanging out with Marxists while at Occidental Community College, reportedly based on the mentoring of Davis.

Brzezinski – who would likely despise Davis – continues to be a major influence on Barack Obama.

So does Davis, but not in the way many might think. Obama’s reliance on Brzezinski would seem to indicate the President is relying on the tactics of his childhood mentor to achieve different ends, in part by relying on a resource who likely has sheer animus for that mentor.