Posted on 03/23/2016 11:09:59 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
Jeffrey Goldberg’s appraisal of the “The Obama doctrine”, that has caused a furore in response to the president’s scathing views on America’s Arab allies, has done us a favour. Now we know beyond question where we stand in the US global pecking order, which appears to be way down the scale of the Obama administration’s priorities.
Barack Obama no longer believes that the Middle East is “terribly important to American interests” but insists that the Saudis need to share the region with their Iranian foes in the form of a “cold peace”. Of great concern is his failure to disagree with his interviewer’s observation that he “is less likely than previous presidents to axiomatically side with Saudi Arabia in its dispute with its arch-rival Iran”.
That makes sense when he has evidently forgiven the past sins of both Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. It comes as Iran has been legitimised and enriched by the US-initiated nuclear deal.
I strongly second the published rebuttal of HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal headed “Mr. Obama, we are not ‘free riders’”. “You add insult to injury by telling us to share our world with Iran, a country that you describe as a supporter of terrorism and which you promised our king to counter its ‘destabilising activities” was his message to the US President.
Prince Turki rightly highlights that Saudi initiated the meetings that resulted in the coalition fighting the Islamic State (Daesh), offered ground troops, is assisting Yemenis to reclaim their country from pro-Iranian Houthi rebels, and has established a coalition to help eradicate terrorists from the planet.
I too, was appalled at Obama’s disrespectful opinions, especially those related to Saudi Arabia, but not surprised because they correlate with his actions and non-actions within the region. Rather than the “free riders” and “oppressors” he allegedly considers Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to be, it is beginning to look like we are the ones who have been taken for a ride.
Muslim reach-out In his much celebrated 2009 reach-out to the Muslim world at Cairo University, he called upon Muslims to join with the US in “a new beginning” based on mutual respect. He was flattering, acknowledging the contributions of Muslims to civilization while admitting many of his own country’s mistakes. He commiserated with Palestinian suffering and was later to pledge the creation of a Palestinian state was a goal he would actively pursue. He dropped that pledge at the first hurdle and it appears respect has become a one-way street.
It turns out the Cairo address was a con. When Goldberg asked Obama what it was meant to achieve, he said, “My argument was this: Let’s all stop pretending that the cause of the Middle East’s problems is Israel...I was hoping my speech could trigger a discussion, could create space for Muslims to address the real problems they are confronting – problems of governance, and the fact that some currents of Islam have not gone through a reformation that would help people adapt their religious doctrines to modernity.” So it wasn’t a reach out at all; it was a lecture dressed in sweet-smelling roses.
According to Goldberg, the day he stepped back from his own red line on Syria’s use of chemical weapons was “the day he defied not only the foreign-policy establishment...but also the demands of America’s frustrating, high maintenance allies in the Middle East – countries, he complains privately to friends and advisers, that seek to exploit American ‘muscle’ for their own narrow and sectarian ends.”
On the contrary, Mr Obama, it was America’s unwarranted muscle in Iraq that fuelled sectarianism which bore ISIS, and it was your intervention in Libya that helped create the armed militias and the feuding tribes creating a chasm between Benghazi and Tripoli that is being filled by ISIS fighters fleeing Syria. Bringing down the Syrian dictator who has murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people and caused over half the population to flee their homes, would have been a just war, but you turned your back on the Syrian people.
As for America’s “high maintenance allies,” I would remind you that Arab troops were on the frontlines of Desert Storm and fighter jets from Saudi and other GCC states were in the air. A report by the Rand Organization tells us that the Kingdom paid over half of the costs of that war to liberate Kuwait, and as you know well, without Arab military purchases running in the billions of dollars, the coffers of US arms manufacturers would dramatically shrink.
Let us not forget too that America’s generosity to less wealthy Arab countries comes with strings. One must also question why you rapped Egypt on the knuckles for bombing ISIS in Libya if you are keen to see Arabs sort out their own problems.
Obama’s insults come fast and furious. He says his insistence that Arab and European states took the lead in striking Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya was to prevent them from “holding our coats while we did all the fighting”. He has questioned ‘the role’ played by “America’s Sunni Arab allies in fomenting anti-American terrorism,” and blames Saudi Arabia and Gulf states for Indonesia’s conservatively religious status.
Yet, he was one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s greatest cheerleaders in its quest to transform Egypt into an Islamist theocracy, overlooking anti-American statements by its leadership including this from the mouth of its jailed former Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, who described the US as an infidel which “does not champion moral and human values and cannot lead humanity.”
Saudi Arabia and Gulf states have been close allies of the United States since 1945 when King Abdulaziz Al Saud joined President Franklin D. Roosevelt on board an American cruiser off Egypt’s shores to sign an oil agreement. Apart from a few minor hiccups, the relationship has always been warm and mutually beneficial.
However, when Obama was asked whether he considered Saudi Arabia a friend, he answered, “It’s complicated”. That certainly wasn’t the impression he left with GCC heads of state and high officials who accepted his invitation to Camp David where they accepted his assurances over the Iran deal!
In a world beset by increasing dangers, we need the US to retain its role as the global power as long as its policies are applied fairly and justly within our neighborhood. President Obama will be packing up to leave the White House in less than nine months. There will be few tears shed in my part of the world; he has let us down.
I can only hope that the coming Leader of the Free World will be more appreciative of our efforts to battle against terrorism and bring stability to the region. I trust that he or she will see Iran bathed in its true colours, assist us to free the downtrodden Arabs in occupied Ahwaz, release Iraq from its Iranian puppet government, Lebanon from Hezbollah’s stranglehold, and treat the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as a priority. In short, America needs a president that leads from the front, not from behind – and so do we.
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Khalaf Ahmad al-Habtoor is a prominent UAE businessman and public figure. He is Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group - one of the most successful conglomerates in the Gulf. Al Habtoor is renowned for his knowledge and views on international political affairs; his philanthropic activity; his efforts to promote peace; and he has long acted as an unofficial ambassador for his country abroad. Writing extensively on both local and international politics, he publishes regular articles in the media and has released a number of books. Al-Habtoor began his career as an employee of a local UAE construction firm and in 1970 established his own company, Al Habtoor Engineering. The UAE Federation, which united the seven emirates under the one flag for the first time, was founded in 1971 and this inspired him to undertake a series of innovative construction projects – all of which proved highly successful.
He has, indeed.
Now, rather than bow, he fellates them and pays to do it.
Nuke them all and be done with it.
L
Ah the guy is a communist. He hates Christians and uses Muslims. Whatever hurts Israel and the US is fine with him
May I point out that the Saudis have purposely kept the price of oil low to try and kill the US fracking sector
In a conflict between Arabs and Persians, his puppet master Valarie Jarrett will make sure he tilts to her homeland of Iran.
obama’s anti arab views? what is this? the onion?
Obama is a 100% bigot. As a black, as a Muslim, based on growing up in Indonesia, as a leftist, as an anti-American. He is a profoundly shallow and bitter little man.
what???
Obama would fellate any world leader on-stage if he thought it would promote the muslim brotherhood in their cointry
The author's opinion, as I understand it, seems to be that Obama has tilted America's favor away from Saudia Arabia toward the Iranian Persians.
Propaganda.
Nonsense. Despite being raised by Soetero as Sunni, and born as Sunni by his putative father, 0bama sees himself in his dreams as being the ‘12th Imam’.
He is trying to reunite the Sunni and Shia because the Global Caliphate will not happen as long as they hate each other as much as they hate us. With a nuclear armed Shia Iran as the strategic threat and the less advanced Sunni as dumb foot-soldiers for the tactical arm, he hopes to bring the Civilized world under the thumb of Islam.
You forgot to call him a homo.
He is definitely a homo.
According to published reports in Pakistan, Obama in 1981 also stayed at the home of a prominent politician, Ahmad Mian Soomro, in an upscale Karachi suburb, and went on a traditional partridge hunting trip north of Karachi. Soomro's son, Muhammad Mian Soomro, is a senior politician who served as acting president before the appointment of President Asif Ali Zardari last September. Ahmad Mian Soomro died in 1999, and attempts to reach his son for comment were unsuccessful... The Obama campaign did not respond to an invitation to comment on some of the speculation surrounding the visit to Pakistan or to provide further details about the trip.
Please remind me again of how many Saudi were on the 9/11 planes...
Crickets
14... none of them pilots or leaders.
It was a rhetorical question...
But thanks.
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