The Financial Times reporter - Roula Khalaf - performs a Lewinski in print.
Obama cracks the code to reach Islam
After the release, lying back on the pillows, Roula muses:
With the change of tone from the Bush years, and the gracious delivery – the word “terrorism” did not even feature – Mr Obama has started turning the page on eight years in which the “war on terror” was perceived by Muslims as an attack on Islam.
Even before the speech, there were signs that thanks to his personal appeal, the US’s battered image in the Arab world was starting to improve. There were also hints that in Iran, for example, Mr Obama was perceived by the regime as more threatening than George W. Bush because of his ability to present a more moderate face of America.
But the speech also poses risks for Mr Obama. While he addressed masterfully the conflicting pressures the US faces in the region, he will find translating them into coherent policies far more challenging, if not impossible.
Mr Obama called for a joint effort to create a world where extremists no longer threatened Americans, US troops returned home, Israelis and Palestinians lived in secure states of their own, and nuclear energy was used only for peaceful purposes. It is an ambitious vision that would transform the Middle East, but it raises expectations far beyond the US’s ability to deliver.
The word "terrorism" was not in the speech. Unfortunately, "that which must not be named" is still a reality.
Note the emphasis on the US "delivering." Like children, the people who make these remarks look to the US as an all powerful mother or father figure whose role it is to give. Not a hint, not a whisper, not a thought to what the rest of the world is responsible for.
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