Barack Obama Just Changed the World
The president's Cairo speech had three overt targets: Muslim extremists, Israel, and George Bush, not necessarily in that order.
He sought to undermine the moral authority of the extremists by radically departing from the language of Anglo colonials. Then he blew a chill into the intransigent heart of Israel by indicating a realignment of official attitudes, relationships, and diplomatic norms. As a topper, he pretty clearly made the case that the intellectual and cultural underpinning of the war on terror and America's geo-political strategy in the Middle East -- the rotten legacy of his predecessor -- have been dim and bigoted.
In the annals of speeches, you'd be hard pressed to find one as ambitious as this.
Each of his targets has got to be scrambling now.
Continue reading on newser.com
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
I am happy to see that most of Obama's supporters, who are strong friends and supporters of Israel, are also supporting his strong rhetoric and plans for the resolution of this problem in the Middle East. It will be essential that we all support him when the lobbying of Congress by BiBi and his supporters begin, because he is going to need our support when he is labelled an enemy to Israel.
It was a great speech, with great messages.
I disagree with nuke power and a couple of other issues points.
Let's hope Obama's actions match the rhetoric. So far I am elated for the huge changes from Bush, and dismayed by the continuation of so many Bush Crimes: solitary confinement torture is now permitted wit a change to the army field manual, the Billion dollar "embassy" in Iraq, the 30% increase in private contractors and costs in the occupation in Afghanistan, The bankster bailout, the delays in regulating derivatives, the support for nuke power, the removal of the Singer payer position from the health insurance debate,
and all the Centrist DLC Corpratist pandering, Obama seems to be doing.
On the other hand, Obama has shown he is a master politician, thinking many moves ahead of the rest. He has plans. I hope they are good, and succeed,.
Get off your knees. It was a speech. He's given many good speeches, but his actions tend to conflict with his rhetoric. Never forget that actions speak louder than words.
To Thebaffler: "get off your knees" - What is that?? Dont be so rude.
The writer has made a couple of good points and as we all know the target was the Muslim world and the Israelis too. Dont think 43 was part of it. 44 is not a rude person. Especially when he could tell 43 or any other previous President or world leader, any damn thing at any time.
Dont know if Mr.Obama "just changed the world" as the writer states, but he certainly is moving in the direction of 'change' we all want, can all believe in and be a part of. To improve all our lives and all our futures.
Get stuffed.
Jeez, Baffler--nice attitude.
BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
Obama's speech was about US relations with the Islamic world not America's relations with Israel-the one being more important according to Obama than the other. Consequently, Obama to establish better US-Islamic relations has to embrace Islam's fictitious view of Israel as an alien presence in the Middle East, a European colonial imposition on the region, instead of a people who have continuously lived there for 3000 years. The man who said he would "tell the truth" accepts the big Islamic/Arab lie driving the Arab-Israeli conflict-and in doing so has given hope to the annihilating forces of anti-Israeli jihad thus sowing the seeds for greater regional conflict and discord. "Blessed are the peacemakers," says the Bible. Unfortunately, Barack Hussein Obama isn't one of them.
PS In giving preference to US-Moslem relations over US-Israeli relations Obama has to accept the consequences of alienating Israel and turning it into an enemy of his Moslem Outreach Initiative. This is what is now happening. Islam is a religion based on power and strength and if Obama is weak with Israel he will lose the respect of Islam and accomplish nothing.
Nice article! I'm particularly impressed with the use of the word "harrumphing," which really is what is happening (I'm gonna try to fit that word into everyday conversation--wish me luck). The speech was superb, and we can see that it's doing the trick as extremists on all sides are freaking out (including in the US).
Not really. His words were memorable, but his actions will be more important. So far, his actions have not matched his articulate words or his beautiful smile. We will wait and watch. If his past actions are any indication of the future, nothing very good will happen. Unfortunately, I have learned over the past few months that our new president was born with a congenital spine deficiency!
Your cracked. This guy has more guts than any 10 wingnuts.
Your congenital mental defect is now plan for all to see, in addition to your willful ignorance of what Barack Obama has done in a mere four months in office.
Indeed. At this time into his presidency, Bush was still on vacation. Tha's why 9-11 happened, thanks to lazy Bush and inept cabinet.
Like others of your ilk, you all seem to think that there SHOULD be INSTANT action on what Obama talks about at any level, ad if it doesn't happen instantly, you are all so willing to slam him as ineffective and so on.
I bet that given reverse situations, you would far much worse!
Yassar Arafat said the Europeans slaughtered the Jews and the Arabs were forced to pay the price.
Imagine you are in your home and the sheriff knocks on your door and says your house is on sacred Native American burial grounds and by a decision of the government you must turn your property over to the native community. Youy may live temporarily in a tent in your back yard until you can be relocated. Sixty years later you are still living in the tent. What would you do? Do you think you would be angry someone took your land because some holy words somewhere said it belonged to someone else and the government agreed? Do you think you might be mad at the new property owners and want to do them harm? Would you fight to get your land back?
Yeah, kinda. Except nobody took your land and the sheriff who came to the door only said that you had to let the Native Americans buy houses in your neighborhood. But you decided you'd rather kill them all instead of letting them live anywhere near you. And, encouraged by all your near and distant friends and relations, you did indeed try to kill them all. But they turned out to be not all that easy to kill, so you lost and they, not surprisingly, chased your ass out of the neighborhood.
And there you sit in your tent 60 years later, refusing to move on and pouting about how it's just so unfair that you lost your house just because of a little thing like you tried to kill all the new people in the neighborhood. But you've taught your children to want to kill them all, too. And your children have taught your grandchildren that the best thing they can possibly accomplish in life is to die while trying to kill all those Native Americans.
By now, these settling neighbors are attacking the Palestinians, cutting off their water supply and burning their fields.
Nice neighborhood. Zionists are so hypocritical.
Good column.
Quite insightful. I hope that Israel and all others in the Middle East can find it within their hearts and leadership to seek peace. Otherwise, war is inevitable. Each side feels too entitled to violence.
War is not only inevitable, it is in process. What do you think is going on right now. War. In slow but inevitable motion.
I share you hope, but I don't think peace in the Middle East will come about from the stake holders having moments of heartfelt insights.
As with other bleeding: apply pressure to stop the flow of blood. But in this case, that will be resisted. Extremists will seize any and every opportunity to derail progress.
It's going to take leadership of the type Obama seems capable of providing--but his will have to be met by and supported by that of other countries.
The U.S. can't force peace. We can give incentives and disincentives, but Israelis and Palestinians (and others) will have to see peace as their best option.
Hope for such struggles with the sense that Israel's wall-building efforts have given it the sense that it can sequester Palestinians and reduce terror attacks to an endurable level.
Hamas' escalation of/by increased rocketing fuels Israel extremists and such hardline policies.
Which is not to justify either the former or the latter.
I'm sure I'm missing details, but I think the details have long gotten in the way of things.
First steps: Hamas accepts right of Israel to exist--they can attach 'IF' statements and so on, but stop with the extreme goal of annihilating Israel.
Israel stops--fully, truly, completely further settlements, legal and illegal, and puts a freeze on building the barrier.
These are doable first steps.
It is time that we (the United States) quit turning a blind eye to the illegal settlements in Palestinian lands. I know they want to establish ownership through possession, but it is not in our national interest to support Israeli expansionism.
Since we need to cut government expenses, lets cut military aid to Israel. It is time to use the power of the pocketbook to support change.
The speech opens so many interesting possibilities... the question is where does he go next? If your three options are valid it seems as if Israel is the likely choice (the president has shown his hand on the other two: Islamic radicals=Afganistan, Bush=Iraq, Guantanamo).
Obama is putting hope above fear, and forward thinking above reactionary bellicose neoconservative revisionism. But, this was short lived. 2 days after his speech he is already beginning to back peddle as AIPAC and the rest of pro-Israeli lobby go full throttle against him here in the USA.
It is finally revealed who runs America - The President of the USA? No, it is the Prime Minister of Israel. What about our Congress? No, it's the Knesset of the United States - our representatives and Senators put Israel above their own country.
It's about time our politicians thought about American national security ABOVE Israels.
Where is your proof? Obama has not backed down on his insistence on freezing settlements. Sure Netanyahu is opposed to it and his government made that clear today. No one in the Obama administration expected a change in their policy within 2 days. He said as much. But several Congressmen (some Jewish) are also demanding freeze including Rep. Wexler.
That's good to know; but certainly Murdoch's media is calling our president "Anti-American"
I also thought it was a great speech that broke much new ground.
http://technbiz.blogspot.com
I am Jewish and I root for Israel's survival. However, the boring yet lethal alliance between the Bush Protestant fundamentalists and the phony "fromme" Likud and its Olmert sequel, mediated by AIPAC, smacks of utmost senility and utmost robbery. It is the real-life equivalent of Sharon's coma.
Time to tell Netanyahu to get off his high horse and do some work and some thinking.
Maybe Israel should diversify away from too much emphasis on military and security industries: it might help its morals and imaginative powers.
Good take. Just curious--how prevalent is that opinion in the American Jewish community?
It's not.
Netanyahu, a right-winger of the highest order not unlike staunch anti-communist Richard Nixon, has an opportunity to make a truly historic "Nixon goes to China" move that would be a world beater on at least that scale.
If he's smart, he'd seize the moment before he faces reelection uncertainty and before the tide of history and demographics turns against Israel.
Look, if the Brits and Irish could sit at the peace table as they did 15 years ago and reach an agreement which is healing hundreds of years of inter-religious strife, it seems to me a deal, two-states or otherwise, is entirely possible in the Middle East.
If American tax payers' money stops flowing to Israel's coffers, Netanyahu will change his tune very fast. Let's put pressure on our Congressmen.
I totally agree. Israel, has to stop dictating how the Palestinians live, eat , work, and what government they should have. It is hard to figure how a people, who were so destroyed as the jews were, became destroyers themselves. If they want to be recognized as a nation, they have to recognize their neighbors, and stop inflicting abuse. We, as a country have got to stop funding such abuse, especially when we can't afford it.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
