Posted on 12/24/2009 10:36:26 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The world, and our region of it, was expecting a lot around this time at the end of last year. We had been promised a new president in the White House, by all measures a historic leader in terms of skin color, the intelligence of his speech and his sincere manner of expression.
We had been promised a speech by Barack Obama addressed to the Muslim world that would turn the page on Bush's warmongering and his provocative language of hate. And indeed Obama didn't deprive us of that. He stood before students at Cairo University, reminded us of his Muslim background and called for “a new beginning.” It was supposed to be a gateway to a more just world in terms of relations between the strong and the weak, more generous in terms of obtaining the rights of victims from their oppressors, and less brutal in the way wars are managed, both domestic ones and those that states wage beyond their borders.
Wasn't it the leader of the most powerful country who stretched his hand to his opponents and invited them to meet him halfway, showed a willingness to walk toward them even more if need be, on the condition that they, too, relax their “clenched fists”?
Where are we now with all of these hopes? It's enough to glance at our region's conflicts, from Palestine to Iraq to Iran and Afghanistan, not to mention Yemen, where another battle has appeared, to realize how promises have gone in vain, or nearly so, while talk of goodwill has remained just that, merely talk!
Is the reason for our disappointment the fact that we put more hope than we should have in Obama's election? Was it the “surprise” of Obama's election as the first Black U.S. president that drove us to think we had a gateway to every solution? Or was it that we thought America's revolution against itself would drive it to revolt against its previous policies; that it would give up its support of Israel to please us; that it would declare Israel's defeat at the hands of the forces of “defiance” within our ranks [the ranks of Arabs], who for a while considered Obama's victory to be their own - and a defeat America's imperialist plans?
The year now coming to an end began with Israel's war on Gaza. At the time, Obama's excuse for not commenting on Israel's crimes was that he hadn't yet assumed the presidency, and that only one president at a time governs the United States and speaks in its name. Yet after being put to the test, it seems that his silence was more like an expression of policy than a show of respect for constitutional principles. Indeed, if the pretexts used by Israel to justify the war on Gaza led the people of that land to elect Benjamin Netanyahu, then what happened after the voting between Obama and Netanyahu also reveals how powerless the American president is to impose his new policies on Israel's right-wing leaders, if there is anything new about them.
And the year's disappointments don't only relate to Obama. One must also recognize the disappointment felt by our region's people over the failure to find solutions to the problems and crises they confront. Whether it's the explosive domestic struggle in Iran, the seemingly impossible-to-resolve rift that exists within the ranks of the Palestinians, or the continuing series of bombings and death in Iraq - despite the withdrawn of U.S. forces from cities and announcement of their date of withdrawal - we can say that we live in a region, in a way unparalleled in the world, that lacks even a shred of hope. These aren't crises that need a new president in the White House or a redrawing of the maps by international forces to resolve. They are crises that require the tiniest sliver of national pride that would strengthen us in the face of foreign greed and interests.
So we enter a new year with a list of problems identical to last year's. Around the world there is talk of a new era, a search for solutions to its many problems, and an accounting of what has been achieved in the past year and what might be accomplished in the next. In our case, our crises only breed further crises. We pay no heed to changes in the world nor do we make use of its lessons. It's as if the inexorable march of time stops in our region, as with grief and passion, we watch time march on for others.
Nevertheless, we wish you a happy new year, with the hope that our list of crises remains as it is, without any additions in the year to come.
More whiney towel-head BS.
Join the party.
Let’s hope he continues to disappoint them.
He’s a world class loser...
I’d be overjoyed to be merely “disappointed”. I’m disgusted, revulsed, alarmed, and nauseated after a year of 0bama.
Did I mention that I couldn’t care less what the Arabs think?
We had been promised a speech by Barack Obama addressed to the Muslim world that would turn the page on Bush's warmongering and his provocative language of hate.s/b "Moslem warmongering and our provocative language of hate."
Disappointment for Arabs? What about Americans???
So the rags are throwing a hissy fit because in one year we are not using prayer carpets and facing Mecca in 2009??
ROTFLOL
...Cheers!
...oh, and Merry Christmas.
Hey, if the mohammedans are sad and disappointed, I’m happy as can be. And I’ll be elated when they’re incredibly depressed when obama and his ilk are tossed out on their ears; it can’t happen soon enough.
And a very Merry Christmas to you and yours, grey_whiskers.
Awwwwwww....
Their new Ayatollah - the usurper in Ameria’s White House - isn’t pushing Islam on us fast enough and hard enoughj to suit them.
By now they expected to have all Americans doing the bow and curtsy to them - not just Obama.
Be patient, be patient...he is doing the BEST HE CAN to reduce America’s strength and power. Plenty has been accomplished to that end, but he promises to do more in the coming months.
Disappointed he hasn't managed to put an end to all of us infidels......(yet)
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