Michael Slackman reports on the pitfalls President Obama should side step when he's in Cairo, in "Memo from Cairo - Egypt to be Center Stage in Obama's Address to Arabs." Obama is the first president since Carter to speak in Cairo, I believe. One of the major stumbling blocks he faces is the US tendency to preach about democracy and freedom while it aligns itself with repressive Arab authoritarian governments and Israel which occupies and constricts Gaza. Marc Lynch at Foreign Policy asks "Why Cairo?" due to the very dilemmas that Slackman's article considers. "Why Cairo" probes issues of Egyptian foreign and domestic policy with much greater depth than Slackman reaches.
The Obama administration is making a full-court press at this point with Arabs and Muslims in an attempt to defuse the catalysts that precipitated the rise of Al Qaeda and anti-Americanism throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. In other words, BO & Co. are targetting the fruits of instability that threaten--directly and indirectly--American national security. The word on the street (sorry, poor joke) is that they are pushing a 57 state solution that would foster a massive peace wave with Israel and Arab and predominantly Muslim states. Along with the Iran initiative and Obama's speech in Turkey, they appear to be discarding gradualism in favor of a sudden, sweeping remapping/restructuring of regional politics. Gates' dismissal of General McKiernan and promotion of General McChrystal prior to the influx of the surge troops could stem from the Obama team's approach to decapitate the still viable Taliban and Al Qaeda infrastructure and network of fighters in the garden spot of central Asia. (If you're curious about McChrystal, check out Abu Muqawama's post on this topic.) So was it a coincidence that Zardari and Karzai were in DC last week? Unlikely. I don't see these policies as disconnected. It seems as though the approach to the Muslim world and assault on the foundations of Al Qaeda are decisive elements to American grand strategy at this juncture.
Will it work? It's hard to say, and it has the markings of a utopian policy move. And you know where utopian visions often end up. Either way, it will be display a measurement of US power and clout throughout the world. The US won't be going this alone; China, Russia, the EU, et al will have their hands in this pie.
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John Hanson (1715-1783) was the first president (1780-1783) of the United States under the Confederation before the Oligarchs took power with the Constitution which allowed Bush to be president and the ownership of guns. Hanson was an Oldenburg Moor, a black nobleman, and like Elijah-Moses-Enoch-Baptist-Mahdi-Elvis, went to space on a fiery alien ship and never died. Hanson has returned as Obama to end the evil Oligarchy! This is why they could never find Obama's birth certificate! Danny Lazare is right to want to change this NRA chad Oligarch Constitution which allows the angry white talk radio males to object to Obama's berth certificate! We must impeach Scalia to disable the southern oligarchs of Calhoun, Corker, & Shelby and their demented Constitution. They have this evil bill of rights with rights for hate speech, guns, lobbyist blogging, campaign bribery, states, property, bonuses, and other oligarchic thievery that needs to end! Such euphemism, like when they call you boy as if they ever intend to call you man when you "grow"! This is why we must oppose oligarch-serving superstition by supporting one-state solutions in India-Packistain, Palestain-Isreal, Turkey-Grease, Creatia-Servia, Armeania-Asbyjean and Zahir-Condo. Then we can abolish greed and superstition across the globe with free psychiatric healthcare. We need to do domestically like we did in Servia, to teach these oligarchs they have no rights to be superstitious racists.
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