The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama

online.wsj.com...

I have waited a couple of days to see if anyone was going to touch on this. I found this to be rather surprising.

The Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama
A foreign policy of penance has won America no friends.

By FOUAD AJAMI
'He talks too much," a Saudi academic in Jeddah, who had once been smitten with Barack Obama, recently observed to me of America's 44th president. He has wearied of Mr. Obama and now does not bother with the Obama oratory.

He is hardly alone, this academic. In the endless chatter of this region, and in the commentaries offered by the press, the theme is one of disappointment. In the Arab-Islamic world, Barack Obama has come down to earth.

He has not made the world anew, history did not bend to his will, the Indians and Pakistanis have been told that the matter of Kashmir is theirs to resolve, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the same intractable clash of two irreconcilable nationalisms, and the theocrats in Iran have not "unclenched their fist," nor have they abandoned their nuclear quest.

There is little Mr. Obama can do about this disenchantment. He can't journey to Turkey to tell its Islamist leaders and political class that a decade of anti-American scapegoating is all forgiven and was the product of American policies—he has already done that. He can't journey to Cairo to tell the fabled "Arab street" that the Iraq war was a wasted war of choice, and that America earned the malice that came its way from Arab lands—he has already done that as well. He can't tell Muslims that America is not at war with Islam—he, like his predecessor, has said that time and again.

It was the norm for American liberalism during the Bush years to brandish the Pew Global Attitudes survey that told of America's decline in the eyes of foreign nations. Foreigners were saying what the liberals wanted said.

Now those surveys of 2009 bring findings from the world of Islam that confirm that the animus toward America has not been radically changed by the ascendancy of Mr. Obama. In the Palestinian territories, 15% have a favorable view of the U.S. while 82% have an unfavorable view. The Obama speech in Ankara didn't seem to help in Turkey, where the favorables are 14% and those unreconciled, 69%. In Egypt, a country that's reaped nearly 40 years of American aid, things stayed roughly the same: 27% have a favorable view of the U.S. while 70% do not. In Pakistan, a place of great consequence for American power, our standing has deteriorated: The unfavorables rose from 63% in 2008 to 68% this year.
(snip)
Mr. Obama could not make up his mind: He was at one with "the people" and with the rulers who held them in subjugation. The people of Iran who took to the streets this past summer were betrayed by this hapless diplomacy—Mr. Obama was out to "engage" the terrible rulers that millions of Iranians were determined to be rid of.

On Nov. 4, on the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran, the embattled reformers, again in the streets, posed an embarrassing dilemma for American diplomacy: "Obama, Obama, you are either with us or with them," they chanted. By not responding to these cries and continuing to "engage" Tehran's murderous regime, his choice was made clear. It wasn't one of American diplomacy's finest moments.

Mr. Obama has himself to blame for the disarray of his foreign policy. American arms had won a decent outcome in Iraq, but Mr. Obama would not claim it—it was his predecessor's war. Vigilance had kept the American homeland safe from terrorist attacks for seven long years under his predecessors, but he could never grant Bush policies the honor and credit they deserved. He had declared Afghanistan a war of necessity, but he seems to have his eye on the road out even as he is set to announce a troop increase in an address to be delivered tomorrow.
(snip)

Here is a view from the other side of the pond. A lot is said here that has been bantered about on ATS, and the people that dare to bring it up get bombasted for daring to even think it, let alone to speak it or write about it.

When you have our allies obviously thinking about our president in this way, where does that leave America?

I thought it then, and I think it now, he made a huge mistake in not responding to the people of Iran in a time when they reached out for him. Instead, he was bowing down to yet another nation, and those people died for it.

So here it is, it isn't just "far right wing lunatics" that are expressing these views, these are our allies, the people that used to respect this nation, losing respect, and telling you why.

washingtontimes.com...

"It can't be a total coincidence that the last time he faced the press corps, we ended with beers in the Rose Garden with Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley, when the focus was supposed to be health care," said Julie Mason, a White House reporter for the Washington Examiner who also covered the Bush administration for the Houston Chronicle.

"It does seem like they are responding to the overexposure argument and trying to exert more control over his appearances," she said.

Could the articles coming out like the one above be why?

This is food for thought, and perhaps a moment to take as a wake up call for people who blindly parrot. Think for yourselves, and ask yourself, is this how you wish to be represented? It is ok now, for the rest of the world to look down on us?

"In Pakistan, a place of great consequence for American power, our standing has deteriorated: The unfavorables rose from 63% in 2008 to 68% this year."

The laws of gravity, the weight of history and of precedent, have caught up with the Obama presidency. We are beyond stirring speeches. The novelty of the Obama approach, and the Obama persona, has worn off. There is a whole American diplomatic tradition to draw upon—engagements made, wisdom acquired in the course of decades, and, yes, accounts to be settled with rogues and tyrannies. They might yet help this administration find its way out of a labyrinth of its own making.

[edit on 1-12-2009 by Libertygal]

The fact is that the American political system is similar to a violent bipolar schizophrenic who attacks some, sweet talks others and gives away his food while he ignores the health of his own body.

Who could possibly care for or respect such a creature?

Obama can't make the rest of the world accept that creature because he's just another face on the same old insanity.

Originally posted by badgerprints
Obama can't make the rest of the world accept that creature because he's just another face on the same old insanity.

Yep i keep saying a leader is a projection of the will of the nation. But i doubt obama has any real power. The ptb that control the system, taught obama wrongly to just lie. People are sick of liars, and as soon as he lies, they will not bother with him again. Thats life for an american president.

So pronouncing pockystan,al kyada,and ku ron and bowing to every half assed idiot in a bath robe hasn't really worked?

reply to post by genius/idoit




Naw fraid not...

See we are the only idiots in the West that actually divide ourselves based on nonsense or give a flaming poop about how anything is pronounced

(somewhere in England there is a small group of English professors that actually think language doesn't evolve but there is actually a "right" way to say anything....)

Obama? He's a big sissy if you ask me... Bush was an Idiot, sure... but he actually had a pair of Balls....

Culture Clashes End with a CLASH

Hate to say these words but that Clash will be either on our shields or our spears...