Friday, June 5, 2009

Obama's Egypt Speech: More of the Same from the POTUS



In his speech in Egypt on June 4th, President Barack Obama aimed to lay the foundation of a renewed relationship between the United States and the Muslim nations of the Middle East. He aimed to do this in Cairo by speaking both about similarities between the United States and the Middle East and joint interests for the future. While the speech was well intentioned and praised by the mainstream media, it was ultimately another speech with empty rhetoric by the President of the United States.                              

As Obama mentions in his speech, it is certainly in the interest of the entire World to see the conflict in the Middle East come to an end. Obama, however, places the blame for the conflict equally on the Israelis and the Palestinians. He says that Palestinians have not been able to follow their dreams in their current state because of their dislocation. This is true, but the way that Obama structures his speech around this point insinuates that this has been because of the state of Israel, not mentioning that the Palestinian people decided to put a terrorist group into power. He blames Israel for the humanitarian crisis that engulfs the Palestinian population, not recognizing that Israel must take such actions to protect their own citizens. At a time where Israel has a strong distrust of the Obama Administration, this speech did nothing but worsen relations between the United States and its reliable ally in the Middle East.

I was hopeful that Obama would talk about the many problems that Iran developing nuclear weapons would cause in the World. He pointed out a future of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East as the inevitable end of the current policies of Iran. His next step should have been to encourage Iranians and other countries in the Middle East to put pressure on the power in Iran to disband its nuclear program. Instead, he agrees with the critics of America by talking about how “unfair” it is that a responsible country like America dares to keep nuclear weapons while at the same time preventing a hostile and dangerous regime in Iran from obtaining them. He continues by espousing his clearly fantasy world outlook where the United States would get rid of its nuclear weapons. Proposing such a solution is not only fantastical but also unproductive and unintelligent for any President.

Obama did show some backbone when bringing up the issues of women’s rights. I would have been happier to see him talk more specifically about how major reform is needed in culture with regards to women but understand why he chose not to. Obama spoke of “confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice…[and] the freedom to live as you choose” as intrinsic human rights that are independent of democracy. It was interesting because many of these undemocratic or farcical democracies in the Middle East are the same places where these intrinsic human rights do not apply to women. Democracy is the proxy that would allow women the rights and freedoms that are given to them by birth. Not emphasizing democracy directly with the protection of human rights, something the founding fathers often did in the pre-constitutional years, was a big mistake.

All in all, I was not surprised by what Obama talked about in Egypt. I know others would say that Obama has only had five months to fix the many problems that he inherited and I completely agree that he must be given more time. What frustrates me is that Obama has been treading on the side of appeasement to the Middle East so far into his administration, something that I sincerely hope does not continue during his four years in office. 

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