WHEN HE SAID CHANGE...:

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: How Obama's Cairo Rhetoric Could Really Unfold: Despite the president's soaring speech on partnering with the world, one foreign-policy expert sees globalization splintering the Arab Islamic world — to the tune of an Israeli air strike, Saudi-Iranian proxy wars, more nuclear weapons, and Obama's tough re-election battle in 2012. (Thomas P.M. Barnett, 6/04/09, Esquire)

Just before President Obama's visit to Egypt today, a poll conducted there by World Public Opinion.org indicated that, while he's far more popular than George W. Bush was, there's little expectation among average Egyptians that Obama will change the overall thrust of American policy in the region.

You know what? They're right.

Obama won't change America's tactics in the Middle East, and his speech this morning reinforced that: plenty of dialing-down the rhetoric of conflict, accompanied by all the usual promises regarding long-time allies and long-held goals. "America does not presume to know what is best for everyone," he said, and I wasn't quite sure whether to believe him — or whether it mattered that I did.

In effect, Obama announced to the Arab world and its leaders that his administration will be almost as demanding the Bush team once was. He demanded — all at once — six tenets: democracy ("a single standard") and secularism ("we cannot disguise hostility") and women's rights ("it should be their choice") and no terrorists and no nukes (you know how I feel about that one) and a two-state solution (we'll get to that).

...he meant them, not us.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 5, 2009 5:56 AM