As I turned on my computer this morning, the following headlines greeted me at FoxNews.com:

• Chaos as Libyan Gov’t Building Burns
• Qaddafi Son: We’ll ‘Fight to the Last Bullet’
• U.S. ‘Gravely Concerned’ Over Libya Violence
• EU Citizens May Evacuate
• Bahrain Protesters Seek to Overthrow Royal Family
• Yemen President Rejects Demand to Step Down

Meanwhile, the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday called on Muslims to “remove” the US from the Islamic world.

This proponent of “the religion of peace” was speaking to a meeting Shiite and Sunni scholars in Tehran at an international conference on Islam, when he said:

The main problem in the Muslim world is the presence of the United States. It is the biggest problem. We need to address that. It is necessary to remove the US from the Islamic world.

He added that America was currently weak.

Khamenei wants Muslims around the world to preserve the “people’s movement in Egypt”. According to him, it is the duty of both the people and dignitaries of Arab nations and the entire Islamic community.

He repeatedly stated that the Arab revolts were “Islamic” and must be consolidated.

Can you say “Caliphate”?

This “man of peace” went on to say:

The enemies try to say that the popular movements in Egypt, Tunisia and other nations are un-Islamic, but certainly these popular movements are Islamic and must be consolidated.

Khamenei also said that “the conspiracy of enemies to create differences between Sunnis and Shiites” needs to be confronted.

He’s got his own problems.

Iran’s opposition, for the second time in a week, has brought tens of thousands of supporters into the streets yesterday. The protesters were calling for the end to the Islamic Republic’s current government.

The government beat back the protesters with what witnesses said was a huge number of security forces. sent to silence the crowds.

According to witnesses, scores of anti-riot police and plainclothes Basij militia lined the streets and on several occasions fired indiscriminately into the crowd and beat protesters with steel batons.

Witnesses also reported that, in one neighborhood, the Basij dropped tear gas canisters from the roof of a commercial building onto the protesters.

Dozens have been injured and arrested, according to witnesses.

One witness reported:

This was the most violent protest we’ve had by far, and people were also really angry and fearless.

The witness said that the people seem determined to stay in the streets.

So, what are the purveyors of Smart Power! doing about the violence in the Middle East?

Not a whole heckuva lot, it seems.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in the turbulent Gulf region on Sunday for a week-long visit, in order to cement U.S. strategic ties with whatever allies we have remaining there.

He is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. He is also supposed to stop in Djibouti, where demonstrators inspired by revolts that toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia have clashed with riot police.

The Admiral’s spokesman, Captain John Kirby, said:

Though this trip was planned well before the recent unrest in the region, the chairman will be interested to gain the perspectives of leaders here about these protest movements.

He added that Mullen will also

…make clear his desire to see that peaceful protest be allowed to continue without threats or violence from any quarter and that restraint is shown by all sides in these disputes.

The Admiral, however, will not be stopping in Bahrain, an important strategic base of America’s military power in the Gulf.

The country had been the site of deadly clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces last week. The United States regards Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, as one of our primary defenses against Shi’ite power Iran across the Gulf.

At the same time Admiral Mullen is on his Goodwill Tour, Iranian warships have crossed the Suez Canal for the first time since 1979.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went on ABC News’ This Week with Christine Amanpour, where she spoke about the turmoil in the Middle East and said:

We try to hold everyone to a similar standard, but we cannot dictate the outcomes. We cannot tell countries what they’re going to do. We had, you know, no control over what happened in Egypt. We expressed our opinion as we went along and were working with our Egyptian counterparts so that their transition is peaceful, meaningful, transparent, produces results.

By the way, where is Hillary’s boss, the Leader of the Free World, during all this Middle Eastern upheaval?

Saturday, he stepped in to help coach his 9-year-old daughter Sasha’s basketball team while she went on a skiing vacation to Vail, Colorado with her mother and sister.

No one is reporting what he did yesterday.  He probably watched the NBA All-Star Game.

How…comforting.