UK Independent: "Is Obama Egypt's great enabler?"

[impik]

Mary Dejevsky:

The US President's words have gone with the grain of Middle East societies in a way that the sermons of Bush and Blair did not

…Is President Obama succeeding where Bush and Blair so expensively failed? ….he took a very different approach … As presidential candidate, he campaigned against the Iraq war and expressly rejected the imposition of democracy….democracy, he argued, was still eminently good but had to come from within. Under his leadership, he said, the US would not dictate to other nations how they should organise their lives.

…Mr Obama did not just yank US foreign policy back in the realist direction taken by his Democrat predecessor, Bill Clinton. He combined that shift with an unusual degree of cultural awareness, most conspicuously in the early overtures he made towards the Muslim countries …. One of his first foreign-policy moves was … a wide-ranging speech addressed to Muslims everywhere. He delivered it in Cairo.

….More than a year and half later the choice of Cairo University looks prescient … revisiting the speech, it is immediately clear not only how far he has shifted the US agenda, but how far his commitment to home-grown democracy remains the same … Obama’s language shines out as consistent with everything that protesters across the Arab world are demanding now.

…Maybe Obama’s early overtures planted a seed that is starting to bear fruit across the Muslim world. Maybe it is simply that modern communications, plus the similar politics, economics and demographics across the region, are combining to galvanise discontent. What is evident, though, is that Obama’s words have gone with the grain of these societies in a way that the sermons of Bush and Blair did not.

Any social ferment of this order brings huge uncertainty. And it is embarrassing to watch Western leaders struggling to divest themselves of allies from a bygone age. But if you ask which American leader contributed more to the cause of change in the Muslim world, you might not agree – yet – that it was Barack Obama, but you could surely accept that George Bush set it back.

The entire EXCELLENT acrticle:


http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary-dejevsky-is-obama-egypts-great-enabler-2201251.html

[Clio the Leo]

1. I dont know how much credit we can give Obama...

... but what I DO know is that is virtually NO anti-Obama sentiment going on in these protests. That is remarkable.

Tonight, at least during his remarks, he seemed to have the affect on crowds he always has. Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened...

Egyptian anti-government protesters gathered in Tahrir (Liberation) square, watch a screen showing U.S. President Barack Obama live on a TV broadcast from Washington DC, speaking about the situation in Egypt, early Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011.

[Cali_Democrat]

2. WOW

Those are amazing pictures.

[Name removed]

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[Nordmadr]

6. Couldn't agree more. Amazing. N/T

[Kdillard]

4. K and R.

[harun]

5. I think Obama's dealings with Egypt is the one area Repulican's in Congress

are unable to eff up.

His speech there is still one of my favorite items of his presidency and I have hope he will assist the Egyptian people in the realization of their dream.