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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II walk to East Room of the White House before making statements on the Middle East peace negotiations in Washington in September, 2010.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - About 18 months before the Egyptian uprising that would doom Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. diplomatic cable was sent from Cairo. It described Mubarak as the likely president-for-life and said his regime's ability to intimidate critics and rig elections was as solid as ever.
Around the same time, another dispatch to the State Department came from the American Embassy in Tunisia. In a precise foreshadowing of the revolts to come, it said the country's longtime leader, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, had "lost touch" and faced escalating anger from the streets, according to once-classified memos posted by Wikileaks.
So what was it? Was America blindsided or bunkered down for the Arab Spring?
The case is often made that Washington was caught flatfooted and now must adapt to diminished influence in a Middle East with new priorities. But there is an alternative narrative: that the epic events of 2011 are an opportunity to enhance Washington's role in a region hungry for democracy and innovation, and to form new strategic alliances.
Cost of 'Arab Spring' more than $55 billion - IMF
There is no doubt that Washington was jolted by the downfall of its Egyptian and Tunisian allies. The revolutions blew apart the regimes' ossified relationships with the U.S. and cleared the way for long-suppressed Islamist groups that eye the West with suspicion.
But declaring a twilight for America in the Mideast ignores a big caveat: The Persian Gulf. There are deep U.S. connections among the small but economically powerful and diplomatically adept monarchies, emirates and sheikdoms, which so far have ridden out the upheavals and are increasingly flexing their political clout around the Arab world.
The Gulf Arabs and America are, in many ways, foreign policy soul mates. Both share grave misgivings about Iran's expanding military ambitions and its nuclear program. The Gulf hosts crucial U.S. military bases — including the Navy's 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain — and is an essential part of the Pentagon's strategic blueprint for the Mideast after this year's U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
In summary: America's influence took blows from the Arab Spring, but also remains hitched to the rising stars in the Gulf.
Transformation
"America has lost the predictability of friends like Mubarak," said Sami Alfaraj, director of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. "But, at the same time, its allies in the Gulf are on the rise. So I would call it a shuffle for America. Maybe a step back in some places, but not in others."
Led by hyper-wealthy Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the Gulf rulers have stepped up their games in various ways as the region's political center of gravity drifts in their direction.
Libya's new PM balances demands of ex-rebels, West
NATO's airstrikes in Libya got important Arab credibility from warplane contributions by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The Gulf's six-nation political bloc also has tried to negotiate an exit for Yemen's protest-battered president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and has taken the lead in Arab pressures on Syria's Bashar Assad, one of Iran's most critical partners.
Yet the Gulf rulers' desire for change stops at their own borders. In March, they authorized a Saudi-led military force to help their neighbor, Bahrain, defend its 200-year-old unelected Sunni dynasty against pro-reform protests by the island's Shiite majority.
And here lies one of the paradoxes for U.S. statecraft in the Middle East: to align with rulers who are firmly vested in the status quo, but not be cast as the spoilers of the Arab uprisings.
"No one is immune from the waves of change," said Nicholas Burns, a former No. 3 official at the State Department. "There's certainly an effort to advise the Gulf Arabs to continue to get on the side of reform."
Burns believes the Arab Spring has taught U.S. diplomats valuable lessons in patience and perspective.
"We are witnessing something that is transformative and whose full impact will play out over years, maybe decades, ahead," said Burns, a professor of diplomacy and international politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "Here is one of those times when the U.S. has to not overact and overreact."
But when events move fast, that may not be the easiest advice to follow. Mubarak was a loyal guardian of Egypt's groundbreaking 1979 peace treaty with Israel, and there is no certainty that whoever succeeds him will do likewise. Meanwhile, the Palestinians have overridden U.S. objections and asked the U.N. for statehood.
"Our ability to influence is limited today more than at any time in the last 35 years," said Graeme Bannerman, a former State Department analyst on Mideast affairs, at a conference in November co-sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace.
That assessment may have some traction in places such as in Tunisia or Egypt, where the U.S. is widely viewed as tainted by its long alliance with Mubarak. A burning U.S. flag is still a common sight in Cairo's Tahrir Square, epicenter of the Egyptian uprising.
'No longer Big Brother'
But ask about America's pull in other Mideast points — the free-spending Gulf, the new proto-state in Libya, even slow-healing Iraq and its Iran-friendly government — and the conversation is different. It is more measured about how the U.S. fits into the new Mideast. There is more talk about the arc of history rather than the latest sound bite.
"It's too early to tell whether U.S. influence has diminished or indeed any change will happen because the Arab Spring is still in process," said Nawaf Tell, former director of the University of Jordan Strategic Studies Center.
Tell sees the Arab Spring as the death rattle of the Arab revolutions and coups defined by the all-powerful state and embodied by winner-take-all leaders: Egypt's Gamal Abdel-Nasser (1954), Libya's Moammar Gadhafi (1969), the 1970 putsch in Syria that brought Hafez Assad to power in Syria and now a dynasty-in-peril under his son, Bashar, and so on.
"These regimes have exhausted their revolutionary credibility and have seen their legitimacy go bankrupt," Tell said. And as with any big unraveling, there are new rules in the aftermath.
This may mean a less privileged position for U.S. interests and more legwork for Washington's envoys, said Morris Reid, managing director of the Washington-based BGR Group, which works often in liaison roles between Mideast officials and U.S. companies.
The U.S. approach to the region "will be better," he said. "Not necessarily stronger."
"The U.S. will have to work harder for intelligence, diplomatic relations, commercial deals," said Reid after meetings in mid-November at the Dubai Airshow, where Boeing Co. made a slew of deals including a record $18 billion order from the fast-growing air carrier Emirates. "The U.S. will now have to prove their value as allies."
A showcase for that in the coming year is likely to be Iraq, and the contest for influence between neighboring Iran and the U.S. after U.S. military forces are gone. That rivalry in turn is influenced by events in Syria, Iran's main Arab ally, and the concerns of emirates and sheikdoms that lie just across the Persian Gulf from Iran.
"Look at it this way: If you accept that the Arab Spring is a once in a four- or five-generations moment, then, of course, it will reorder the entire game of influence and politics by the big powers," said Salman Shaikh, director of The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.
"U.S. leadership does matter," he continued. "It's naive to say it will become irrelevant. But it's also wrong not to notice that America's era as the region's diplomatic superpower is coming to an end. The Arab Spring has brought much more independent-minded diplomacy by nations and a new empowerment among Arab people. America is a big player, but no longer Big Brother."
Associated Press writer Dale Gavlak in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Yes thanks to our rookie president ''"Our ability to influence is limited today more than at any time in the last 35 years," Obama has paved the way for The Muslim Brotherhood! I really wonder why?
Obama is basically continuing Bush policies. There is plenty of blame to go around.
Every President has to start as a rookie. I think I read it in a book somewhere.
Oh yeah, the Constitution.
Let's face it, all these wars are backfiring.
If our plan is to attack and threaten Arab countries until the U.S. is the most hated country on Earth and then start world war 3, GOOD JOB, everything is going according to plan!
Five years in Syria and ten years in Iran would put us nowhere except bankrupt our a$$.
Perhaps we should airlift all the chickenhawk armchair politicians to central Baghdad and see how long they last in that new "democracy" we wasted 3 trillion tax payer dollars on.
We are the most hated in the Middle East, and it's too late to change that feeling. World War 3 (not to be confused with Armageddon [don't get all religious on me]) is coming soon.
Jungle, Bush had the classic republicn agenda; "our way or we invade". Obama's policies couldn't be any more different.
Republican candidates even want to invade Iran now.
"Blindsided by the Arab Spring"???? DC not only seen it coming, they instigated it, encoraged it at every turn, and continue to encourage the overthrow of every "Regime" that could even be remotely considered "American Friendly" while coddling every single "Regime" (myanmar, syria, Iran) that has at its heart "hatred" for America...This is no accident, this is only the next logical step, for the "progressives"...Destroy America from within and from without, at all costs, because Capitalism is "Evil"....Now you can say what you want about the "COWBOY", but this "hare chrishna" is setting back the Arab World back a thousand years
Are you influenced more by the bully or the true friend?
Answer: the bully...
But the bully's power is always temporary while the true friend's influence weathers both good and bad times...
And the bully's influence is strong when the bully is in your face but fleeting behind his back...
And the bully has no trust while the friend has it all...
And the bully usually gets his "payback" in spades when it is due...
We have to decide who we are... in more ways than just the Middle East.
Yes, PeAcE LoVeR (and where the hell did you get that name!), we have lost our direct and bullying influence and gained more as a friend... but I guess you'll just say "typical liberal"...
And I think we might just have to accept that some will NEVER understand.
Mr. P, you need to go see someone for your "condition". "He" and "we" hate capitalism? No, we hate what you have made it.
We are the most hated because we're Christan but they hate Christian anywhere, their they just kill them...So whether you like it or not it is Religious.
What I meant was that World War 3, as we might call it, may not necessarily be Armageddon.
The revolutions blew apart the regimes' ossified relationships with the U.S. and cleared the way for long-suppressed Islamist groups that eye the West with suspicion.
Eye the West with suspicion????? They want to kill us!!!! If Sharia law is not a dictatorship, I'm not sure what you would call it? After Spring comes Summer and then a very long Winter. In fact, it looks like they will just skip Summer and go right into Winter.
What I meant to say is that Christian get a bad rap anywhere because many are American ..
More conservative inanity? The hidden truth here lies in the very image of a black American President, with a middle eastern name. Nothing so confounded and scared Osama Bin Laden than America with the credibility of this American president conservatives love to hate (for NO reason other than his color or his name). How much of the Arab self confidence and pride that enabled their coming out party should be attributed to Barack Obama? More than you are willing to concede. But what else is new?
Imagine for a moment a swaggering, arrogant, cowboy Republican, intent on securing the neo-con image of a love-us-or-get-bombed-by-us attitude? Nothing has so riled Arabs than an America that strips them of their resources, pays their rulers to let them suffer under a police state, and then touts democracy which they have no intention of delivering to them. You know, the type of democracy conservatives promise us Americans but would much prefer to take away and hand over to corporations. Yeah. Republicans would have a much better outcome? Only in your Limbaugh/Beck/Colter fueled nightmares. A world destined to rip itself apart over religion-provoked crusades. Yeah, we fear religious zealots leading the Arab countries but would also vote for a right wing, religious zealot to run America. The religious zealots, ours and theirs will destroy the planet.
@lmarct
I'm going somewhere to get help for my condition, in a little less than a year (voting booth)...I have not yet lost faith in the Human spirit or the American Spirit, and I truely believe when Americans and the World truely sees the "Progressives" for what they not only are, but what they have openly aspoused for decades...the movement will be put back into the back rooms and alleys where it was born...
LMarcT
Hmmmmm, I'm assuming you mean what Progressivism has made it, right?
Contrary to what you Liberals think, we have not had a true free-market for nearly 100 years. What we have is an irrationally taxed, over-regulated, government influenced, controlled market.
The highest corporate tax-rate in the world weighed down with 72,000+ pages of tax code that not even the IRS can explain. Regulations that prevent entrepreneurism by way of 150,000 pages of mostly irrational regulations that cost industries $1.75 TRILLION dollars a year. A criminal central bank linked together with a corrupt government that has the capability to shrink or expand an economy, usually in the wrong way.
Even as our impotent government creates massive debt and has allowed the majority of our revenue generating industries to leave our shores for friendlier havens you still hope that government will change. That "hopey changey" thing has never nor will it ever work unless we minimize governments influence on the private sector.
As long as our elected officials allow themselves to be bought by the highest bidder our economy will continue to collapse. This includes special interest groups, lobbyists and unions. None of these are good for industry. They are influential to their own end and disregard the effect they have on the overall picture. We have allowed special interests to get in the way of commerce for the sake of a vote.
The Keystone pipeline would allow $15 per barrel oil, tens of thousands of jobs that even the goonions agree with yet Obama panders to the environmentalists. Three years were spent on studies and research and in August approval was given to begin the construction. Who stopped job creation and commerce? Environmentalists. Once again the free-market is stifled for political gain.
We need a leader who has a clue about Washington's role in job creation. There is no role for Washington in job creation. It's only purpose should be to follow its Constitutionally mandated Enumerated Powers and allow the State and Local governments to decide on any cooperation in commerce creation.
You obviously can see what YOU have made it, right? Your condition seems to be much more serious than Mr.PheaNiques-0000001.
US would much rather support a brutal dictator because these can be easily bought with money and weapons. That was the case with Mubarak - US was paying him for decades to be friendly to Israel. Democratic governments in third world countries are much, much harder to manipulate.
The Islamic faith has lived in relative peace with Christianity for over a thousands years. People should not be deluded into thinking that our problems with the ME are longstanding....in fact, it is only in recent times that we suffer our relationships with the islamic faith. We had good relations with the ME up until WW2 when their nations were modernized and petroleum products began to climb in use all over the world. It is hard to see the wealth that all that oil provides and not want a piece of the pie, so to speak. That is where our intervention has backfired on us. Of course, one can argue over who needs who more- the Western nations because of our oil thirst; or the ME nations, who have virtually no other means of economic sustainability.
It is the Arab economies that look to become potent and more extreme. The Arab secular state is no more.
Take Iraq for instance. The Christian population of Iraq, which was fairly secure under Hussein, is fleeing the country in droves. The entire country was virtually leveled and rebuilt from the ground up. The U.S. poured endless amounts of money into it, like a black hole.
Now Iraq is set to become an economic powerhouse in the region.
Where Iraq and Iran used to be enemies, now they are not. Where then, will they focus their resources?
All this toppling of governments is a fool's errand. What has been set in motion through the chaos of change?
Jungleboogie agree with both your posts.
TeaKook Alert!
Jungle, (as I look side-to-side to see if anyone is looking)... I agree.
I too must agree with you, Jungle. And please tell me that the author of this article must be speaking of the Middle East of another planet when he writes:
that the epic events of 2011 are an opportunity to enhance Washington's role in a region hungry for democracy and innovation
A region HUNGRY FOR DEMOCRACY AND INNOVATION??? Ummm. . . I don't think so, unless Sharia law is their idea of democracy.
It's the people's decision on what kind of life they live in, they don't have to live by american stereotypes of muslims and arabs. Most arabs/muslims would rather have their country be modernized and democratic because that is the definition of Jihad: Showing non-believers that Islam is the better religion. Sharia Law is applied in Algeria but more liberally. The only occasions that Sharia is applied is when someone does something haram (against the teachings of the prophet and the qu'uran) or in familial affairs such as adoption, abortion, marriage, etc.
When the Arab oil runs out the USA will not have to influence anything in the Arab world. We can concentrate on our own non-petroleum energy production like wind farms, solar energy, hydroelectric plants, and corn/vegetable oil to power our vehicles. The Arabs will become so irrelevant that they will return to their tent dwelling days. They will rekindle old rivalries and blood-feuds. They will succumb to their own hatred and intolerance. I hope I am alive to see it.
There is still plenty of arab oil to go around ...and we will not see it end in this generation unless their stations are blown up or something. However, The USA can still concentrate now with finding its own sources of energy ...but the problem with corn/vegetable oil is that it could potentially send our country into a famine ...think about it, farmers would want to sell to those who offer more money ...the energy sector and not the food sector. A whole lot of the junk we eat sometimes has corn or vegetable oil...or variations thereof.
This ,however, doesnt change the fact that the ultimate dream for extremists Muslims is to bring the USA down ...
Most of the oil from the middle east goes to Europe, India, and China while the US imports from Canada and Venezuela. Oh didn't I just read that Obama managed to pi$$ of our Canadian friends to the point that they are now considering seeking alternate markets for their oil? It just might be cheaper for them to build a pipeline to Vancouver and sell to Japan and China than to have to deal with the caprecious antics of Mr. Obama.
We have supported and perpetuated the beginning of World War III, it just hasn't started yet. We sold our Allies in the Region out, we can not be trusted to support anyone. The only Foreign Policy this Administration has is Apologist, Wake Up America !!! One Term and One Term Only !!!!
Did you even bother to read the article? You're a typical uninformed American, believing that we pull all the strings and control everything that happens in the world. Well, my ill informed friend, we don't and we shouldn't.
You're absolutely right, Mikeo; except for the fact that we've tried to pull those strings on a regular basis for decades.
By the Border- I think it goes a little farther back than this president. Read the Book "Faith, Power, and Fantansy". It is an historical account ot the US involvement in the Middle East. And if you don't want to read that much, I at least suggest post WWII literature. Maybe you can get a clearer picture that "One Term and One Term Only". It'd be nice if it were so simple.
Excellent Job. Gale Davlak on your report of this article.
Thank You, KEVIN
StablitY: US interests at any cost. Doesn't matter if the governments are corrupt, repressive, dictorial. Just like everyplace else, as long as what goes on suits our business / political itterest, we don't care about anything else. The rest of the world is changing and here, our petty politicians fight about nonsense. The only candidate that makes any sense is Ron Paul. He wants to elimate billions in foreign aid. He said it right: we take money poor and working people need here and we give it to RICH people in POOR countries. All that ever happens is the most connected get wealthy. One corrupt government after another. He also said reign in the military. I am NOT againgst our brave soldiers who sacrifice their lives for our country. I AM against our country asking them to fight one ridiculous war after another. And get the CIA out of everywhere. They have one covert plan after another. I have a saying and it's this: Outsmarting yourself. There is always payback somewhere. Maybe we are seeing it now. Don't get me wrong. A lot of the religious / political / financial forces in the world are NOT nice people with NOT nice goals. But we have lost our way. We can't even tell what's right or wrong anymore, all we know is if our influence has changed or if our interests have changed. It has little to do with what is right and it cares little about people in these countries. Did we expect these brutal dicatorships to last forever to serve us?
You have to give credit on Obama's limited engagement on Libya. He didn't spend a lot of money or lives on that revolution and also gave them the pride in making the change themselves, like the French did for us during our Revolutionary War. Paul doesn't mind giving tax cuts to the rich here, how rich do you have to get beyond living in a mansion, living a wealthy persons life, and not working. Ridiculous to ask others to give their life in war to preserve a system where you can live in extreme excess while others work and lack many of the basics of living. That is a systeme that is asking for revolution itself. It is a corrupt system, we bribe countries to behave better, we allow Congress to bribe itself for no reason except greed, and we foster a system of campaign finance that allows swaying votes through costly advertising of which they sell us out to afford that.
Booted out of Iraq and now Pakistan which will bring an endto our efforts in Afghanistan seems to be the resounding change that Obama promised during the last election. Mission accomplished I think, oh and there was that no hope thing too right?
I don't understand how the media "thinks" all these Arab Spring meltdowns will lead to democracy. The Muslim Brotherhood WILL win the day and Sharia Law will rule the peoples' lives. Is that what democracy is? Sharia Law?
Oh well, whatever floats their boat I guess. Hope the women enjoy their new found freedoms.
Really? Well maybe they can get them to bend over and support the gay pedofiles in elementry public schools next... huh? We see the leverage in this Clinton.
Now I know why I am a registered republican.
Share the responsibility of democracy. Let others take the lead to lead them to democracy. We, the United States, are not omnipotent. And, we, the United States, are not rulers of the world.
Aah, Angel, I take it you do not approve of gays? So, now what you are saying is the anti-gay sentiment is a Republican calling. I think if you will look into it both the Dumocrats and the Ripofficans will both give lip service, sorry for the pun, to the gays this upcoming, sorry, another pun, erection, I mean election.
In case you missed my point, either members of either party will sleep with the devil, lie to their mother, make promises to its citizenry, and take the corporations money, and then, after being elected, will line their pockets at the expense of the American people.
Wow you say, nasty attitude, maybe, too many years of watching the human race on this planet morph into crap.
Vote, Vote every line on the ballot, and vote for anything but a Democrat or Republican. Get one of the other parties to put someone up against these two parties. Vote the graft out of office and out of our lifes.
Let me see if I understand this. We have a POTUS that goes around the world kow-towing to Arab states and leaders since Day 1, encourages uprisings and the eventual over-throw of allies we've had for over 30 years, gives lip service to Muslims and alienates proven allies in the region like the Israelis, plays games with countries like Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia concerning our national security interests in the region (and if you don't think that having a military/intelligence presence or securing oil reserves in the Middle East is important like Ron Paul - you're a moron that knows nothing of regional history and existing threats to our national interests abroad). Obama spends hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Libyan anarchists to over-throw a nut-case that was NO threat to the USA AND a supporter of OUR War on Terror, and refuses military action against Iran to prevent them from initiating a nuclear exchange or REALLY ushering in WW3 - and the list goes on. I DID read the article, and it's apparent that the spin is starting to rev up in preparation for the near future when, through our sheer idiocy in the White House and Congress, fundamenalist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Hesbollah start exerting power and control over those states that started the "Arab Spring". SPRING my behind; more like the chill of Winter! This country sat on its behind when Wilson played peace-maker and got WW1, it sat on it's behind when Japan was raping and murdering a million Asians for a decade BEFORE Pearl Harbor and Hitler conquered Poland, Czechoslavakia, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands BEFORE FDR figured out his BS isolationism would NOT protect us from those that considered us weak (DUH - read your history Ron Paul). Truman fired generals who predicted the Chinese would be the biggest threat to our children TODAY (they were right) and censored those that predicted Stalin would export totalitarianism by force (how's murdering about 20 million russians). Kennedy got us into Vietnam and a Democratic Congress lost the war. Carter sat eating peanuts while fundamentalist @!$%#e ransacked our embassy, and took Americans hostage, and Iran's "victory" over us, eventually because the standard-bearer for ALL fundamentalist organizations existent in the Arab world today that want to wipe us out. Now we have POTUS that has been playing Amateur Hour for the last 3+ years and his believers are still trying to blame his ineptness on the former President. For all his faults, Bush DID manage to eradicate the Taliban from most of Afganistan (they WERE in charge and they DID plan 9/11 from there) and Bush DID remove a real genocidal maniac - Saddam. The big difference between GWB and the current POTUS is that Bush was FEARED by our enemies and Obama is laughed at. Do you think the Iranians would have put up a sign in front of a captured drone that read "The US can't do a damn thing" when Bush was in office? Teddy Roosevelt understood the nature of man and those that do not understand or accept the notion of freedom and liberty more than any President except perhaps Ronald Reagan, and "speak softly and carry a big stick" was understood by every nation that tried to intiidate our allies or threaten Americans. He WAS a leader, Reagan WAS a leader, and Bush WAS a leader. "Bill - 4012182" is right about those that don't know right from wrong, and when it comes to knowing what's right or wrong for the USA, the present administration and the left-wing groups that support them are poster children for ALL that is wrong with the USA of today! BLINDSIDED??? How about just plain DEAF, DUMB, and BLIND! Enough said.
Carter didn't just eat peanuts, he caused it by harboring the ousted Shah. The Iranians will never forgive us for that.
Also; the USA did play both sides in the Iran-Iraq war, betraying Saddam Hussein.
JP. your first sentence disqualifies you from an objective discussion.
Repeating a lie over and over doesn't make it true.
Sorry JP. Please read "Power, Faith, and Fantasy". It's a history of US involvement in the Middle East. And if you think one president has crafted his own foreign policy, I would love to see the sharp difference between one president from another. Our major policy goals have not changed since Korea.
Ah yes, a weak US is a vulnerable one in which it is easily influenced and eventually destroyed. Leadership does not come from a classroom or a book as evidenced by the inability of obama to get things done. As compared to Clinton or Reagan.
Look at the media, desperately trying to spin the fiasco of US foreign policy into something better than the disaster it is.
Spinning like ballerinas on speed. Trying to protect their anointed one, trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.
The facts remain: Obama is directly responsible for the soon-to-emerge Islamic governments in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere.
Steven, yours is a circa 1950's foreign policy statement.
The US cannot and should not prevent sovereign nations from selecting a governments of their own choice.
Why do you think Iranian government distrusts us to greatly? Because we overthrew a freely elected government and installed the Shah as a dictator.
Iran doesn't 'distrust' us, they want us to be wiped out.
Remember, the nazis were 'elected' too. Then it all changed as Hitler consolidated power.
Do you really believe that the Iranian people are happy with their leadership?
No, what I see is YOU are trying to spin it into a disaster? What disaster? No disaster has happened yet. You think you can predict the future. Trust me. YOU CAN'T.
No, probably not since 1953, but I imagine you don't know anything about that.
Yes there has been great change in the Middle East. I am proud of how President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the rest of the administration have responded to this evolution. We have gained some of the respect back that was lost during the Bush Administration when they invaded Iraq with questionable intelligence and selfish reasons. The United States is now called upon to serve a different role when it comes to the Middle East and the Arab Nations. Yes, we have to be mindful that we must maintain a strong relationship with Israel but we also have to come to the realization that as Egypt and Libya and possibly Syria develop their own type of government, it probably won't be as democratic as our government. This will NOT make us weak but a partner in this new Middle East. We have much to offer.
All this time and I thouhgt that Christianity is of a Middle Eastern origin, damn
Americans don't really know anything about the Arab and Muslim states from North Africa to Pakistan and Indonesia. We were fooled in the 50s by the government's scare tactics about a Red Menace that was no more than saber rattling with a fire cracker by Russia. We the people don't know for sure what Iran is really up to. We don't really know what the puppeteers who pull the strings of both parties are up to either.
Democracy in the Middle East does not have the same meaning as it used to in the U.S. Arabs and Muslims want to be free of secular despots in order to choose religious despots. Their false religion has them as fearful of the imams and ayatollahs as Catholics are of papal edicts regarding sin. America's influence extends to how much oil it buys and how many modern planes and weapons it gives away to Israel's enemies. And don't fool yourselves into believing that ANY of Israel's neighbors are friends. Jordan's king is an Muslim. Saudi Arabia's king is an Muslim. The sworn duty of a Muslim is to kill the "infidel".
Yeah right and Jews want to take over the world and Atheists are really satanist. You guys are all the same. I know plenty of people of different beliefs and most of them are just trying to rais their families etc.
Arab people wanting governments that respect and adhere to the majority religious principles in their countries are no different than American fundamental christians wanting christian ideology to inform our laws - and insisting that that was the intention of the founders all along.
These are emerging governments and their primary concern is going to be their people. Having been born of popular dissent, they can fall to it too. We may not like everything they come up with, but as long as they function as members of the larger international community, we need to respect and work with them. After all, we don't like France very much at certain times but I haven't heard anyone recently suggest we invade them.
Give it time. Right now they are more focused on their own issues than in unifying to hate the US.
Anybody who thinks the Islamists who've taken over the governance of these countries will be more open to working with our government than their predecessors is an igorant fool, a/k/a ,an Obama apologist.
Islamists have "taken over" the governments...they were voted in.
Just too stupid for words.
Once again, Mark, your ignorance shows through and you resort to name calling. Islamists took over because they were behind the uprising that Obama wandered into ill-informed and clueless, just like he addresses all foriegn policy issues.
Has anyone said "Nuke 'em" yet?
Has anyone said "Nuke 'em" yet?
Only the in breeders.
Israel and friends, thought that they could destabilize the Middle East, and squeeze every once of wealth out of the region. Wrong! The indigenous people have taken a couple of giant steps backwards, in order to ward off this democracy that threatens their future.
It is no longer a question of whether US can influence Arab governments, rather it is can Arab Governments finally influence US !! I hope they can because what needs change now is US foreign policy.
We may have to stop catering to Israel as unashamedly as we do.
It may even come to a real dilemma for many of our baby-kissing politicians: Jewish funding or Middle East influence.....