Changing the Discourse: First Step Toward Changing the Policy?
by Phyllis Bennis
President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated Cairo speech reflected a significant shift away from the ideological framework of militarism and unilateralism that shaped the Bush administration’s war-based policy toward the Arab and Muslim worlds. His “not Bush” focus was perhaps most sharply evident in his public denunciation of the Iraq War as a “war of choice.” Obama’s call for a “new beginning” based on “the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition” was followed by a move to shift the official U.S. discourse toward something closer to internationalism – particularly by pointing to parallels between historical (and some contemporary) grievances and treating them as equivalent. This included his reference to the U.S. “role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government,” along with Iran’s “role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians.”
Certainly, the equivalences were limited. Equating Palestinians and Israelis as “two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history …” doesn’t reflect the reality that Israel is an occupying power with specific obligations under the Geneva Convention, while Palestinians living under occupation are a protected population under international law. But in the context of decades of U.S. privileging of Israelis as the only ones who have suffered, equating the two was a major step forward. Read more…
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Focus Article: The Dawn Begins with a Single Ray of Light to Illuminate the Darkness
by Dr. Robert D. Crane
The majority of Muslims throughout the world, including the heads of all the national Muslim organizations in America, have been open-minded enough to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt at least for awhile in his effort to develop a new paradigm of foreign policy diametrically opposite to that of the NeoCons.
Unfortunately, many both in America and around the world seem to have become so traumatized by George W. Bush’s sustained double cross between the elections of 2000 and 2004 that they refuse to trust anybody, anytime, anywhere. Many Muslims look at the dark side of everything, simply because they have become used to so much darkness. Then when signs of dawn appear they retreat like bats into their caves.
Others try to be objective by emphasizing what Obama should have said but did not or did but with insufficient emphasis.
Such emphasis on the negative is self-defeating. Implementing actions are in the future. Much more important are policies stated in the present, because without them there is nothing to implement. Still more important are new paradigms of thought, because these shape agendas, which, in turn, control policies. President Obama is an astute politician, and he knows that paradigmatic revolution is the secret to lasting change. Read more…
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World Commentary
- Obama and Iran: New Hopes, Old Dangers by Faramarz Farbod
- We Wanted a World Leader. We Saw Only a US President by Ahdaf Soueif
- A Glimpse of Obama in a Cairo Emptied of Its People and Its Poor by Robert Fisk
