Thanks to Obama, U.S. No Longer a Convincing 'Great Satan'
"An
effective counter-strategy must begin with the following insight. The West has lost the so-called 'war on terror.' Al-Qaeda
lives. Blockading Hamas in Gaza, bombing Hezbullah in Lebanon, isolating
Ahmadinejad's Iran and shutting out Assad's Syria have made this four-way axis
stronger than ever."
Nayla Tueni celebrates her victory and the victory of pro-West March 14 forces in Lebanon's parliamentary elections. The 26-year-old is the daughter of Gebran Tueni, a member of parliament assassinated in 2005.
ISTANBUL: Is the electoral defeat of Islamist Hezbullah in Lebanon the earliest
sign of success for Obama's speech in Cairo? That's the speculation in Beirut's
cafés, where supporters of the pro-Western government have been celebrating
their success for days. Weaken the radicals with soft words - that appears to
be the new formula for the Near East [Middle East for Americans].
But the power of
this soft approach has yet to be proven. It still needs to produce long-term results,
including in the Iranian elections on Friday and beyond. It's a bitter struggle
between President Ahmadinejad and his challenger, Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
has one disadvantage: anyone who votes for him can't also be voting against
George Bush - because he's no longer there.
President Barack Obama
absolutely doesn't want to slip into the role of villain. Last week during his epochal
speech in Cairo, he set a new tone for American policy in the Middle East.
Arabic newspaper al-Hayat wrote self-mockingly of the, “confusing guest,
who revealed the attractiveness of the Great Satan to us.” Many Muslims were
genuinely enthralled. That was also to do with Obama's attitude. The usual history
lesson delivered from the pedestal of Western infallibility was cancelled.
Examples? Obama avoided the
word “terror,” which his predecessor used so hyperactively and which is misused
so gleefully by so many governments as a pretext for suppression. He praised
the attitude of Muslim women who choose to wear a veil. He altered the view of
modernity by acknowledging that progress doesn't have to be made the Western
way. He broke with the aggressive logic inherited from the Bush and Clinton
eras, according to which the provocations of Islamists and Iranian presidents
must be followed by the drum beat of mobilization in the West.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
INTERVIEWS WITH DRUZE LEADER WALID JUMBLATT
Some will ask:
doesn't the Iranian nuclear program require decisive action? Shouldn't we fight
Holocaust denier Ahmadinejad? Isn't the advance of radical Islamic parties like
Hamas and Hezbullah cause for alarm? Of course. But an effective
counter-strategy must begin with the following insight. The West has lost the
so-called “war on terror.” Al-Qaeda lives.
Blockading Hamas
in Gaza, bombing Hezbullah in Lebanon, isolating Ahmadinejad's Iran and
shutting out Assad's Syria have made this four-way axis stronger than ever. Economically,
Saudi Arabia and Turkey are several generations ahead. But thanks to the Iraq War
and Western Crusader rhetoric, ailing Iran is now all puffed up over being a stronger
dominant power in the region. It can't go on like this.
Obama signaled a fundamental turning
point in Cairo, but he has yet to lay out the details. What happens next? This
week, Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell is travelling through the
region and attempting to clear the road of a huge stumbling block: the Jewish
settlements which are preventing the creation of a Palestinian state. In Cairo,
Obama called for a halt to the rapid expansion of Jewish towns on the
Palestinian West Bank.
It's the right thing to do,
but Israel has already greatly altered the basis for talks on the Road Map in
its own favor. So unless the settlements are rapidly and extensively torn down,
the Palestinian state will come to nothing. Obama mentioned Hamas in his speech,
but attached conditions to the integration of the Palestinian Islamists. That
in itself is good, since Hamas does indeed need to recognize Israel if it wants
to join in negotiations. But who from the Western side will talk to Hamas as
long as they don't recognize Israel? That's a negotiating advantage that the
Islamists don't want to give away without getting something in return.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Perhaps a Western deal with
Hezbullah will offer a solution. The Shiite Islamists have ministers in the
Lebanese coalition government and that will likely remain true despite their
recent electoral defeat. They don't recognize Israel. Nevertheless, the West
has worked together happily with this shimmering example of a government - the
prime minister was, after all, so graciously and pro-Western. Could this be a
model for Palestine, perhaps?
That leaves the biggest boulder
- Iran. The presidential election process provides hope that the sweaty man with the
shrill speeches and damp hair won't win on Friday. Ahmadinejad
challenger Hossein Mousavi is gaining more support every day. Mousavi is sailing
with the headwinds of the Obama Effect - Ahmadinejad loses without the prospect
of an apocalyptic global confrontation.
Violent
clashes break out in the streets of Tehran after regime
But whoever wins, nothing
will decisively change with regard to Iranian national policy. The centrifuges
for enriching nuclear material will continue to rotate. Iran won't give up its
claim to leadership in the region. And Obama has said that he doesn't want to
deny Iran the use of civilian nuclear energy.
But how can the U.S.
President convince Iranian leaders of his conviction that atomic weapons are unnecessary?
Certainly not with threats of war. The great regional security pact that will
calm Israel and Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria, still needs to be formulated.
Ahmadinejad's defensive irritability
during the election campaign and the lesson taught Hezbullah in Lebanon
indicate that these radicals are probably encountered more effectively with an
outstretched hand than with gunfire.
