Ahmed Al-Jarallah – Editor-in-Chief, the Arab TimesWE do not need to go through what Jeffrey Goldberg has published about the ‘Obama creed’ to understand what the US president -- who is spending his last year at the White House -- thinks.
We understood his corrupt dogma from the stand he has taken and the speeches he has given when he was running for the president’s office in 2008 because he was the first person who talked about a ‘New Middle East’.
Perhaps, the only ostensible thing which he can be proud of is the ‘Arab Spring’ project through which he pledged to dismantle the region into tribal and sectarian states.
Obama who is boasting about his dogma has forgotten that the experience with the US since World War II have taught Arabs not to put all eggs in one basket.
He may have learned that lesson during his last summit with the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz who told him, ‘You cannot put restrictions on the Kingdom’ since all those who have ruled from the White House have pushed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into a corner with the ‘Islamic terrorism’ tag although it is the Kingdom that has confronted terrorism with its weight and power especially after Washington defeating the then Soviet Union in Kabul and abandoned the Afghans to their fate.
The Kingdom and the rest of the GCC countries carried this burden of sin for 14 years which it had nothing to do with which epitomized in Sept 11 incidents for which Obama till to this day holds the Saudis responsible in spite of the fact that a court in the US has acquitted Saudi Arabia and found Iran guilty. This is with all due respect to the independence of the US judiciary.
Indisputably, the US intelligence has enough information and evidence to nail Iran for this crime of the century. Yet, it looks like Mr Obama wants to promote his special legend which even children find difficult to believe.
In the 1990s the Arabs in general and the GCC countries in particular had warned Washington against leaving Kabul in the hands of radical groups. Moreover, these countries had urged the US to curb the activities of these groups but Washington did not take heed until civilian planes crashed into the World Trade Towers and Pentagon. It is then that Washington realized that it brought terrorism to its doorstep.
This is not strange of the American behavior since the US administration decades ago had brushed aside British warnings of the consequences of taking a neutral stand in World War II.
Moreover, Japan did not allow America to enjoy the same tranquility which it did during World War I after it attacked the Pearl Harbor and forced the Americans to join World War II.
Today, when Obama says, ‘The Middle East no longer attracts the US and wants to get out of it’, he should not expect anyone in the Middle East to feel sorry because the country which has ignored the 8-decade-old alliance for petty interests does not even deserve a farewell.
The Arab countries which have remained allied to the US throughout over past several decades gave space for Washington to play a key role due to the nature of this phase and the Cold War; yet the US policy complicated the situation and produced radicalism.
Today, it should look at the regional alliances built with the wisdom of the Saudi administration under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz far away from US or any other international power.
These alliances which depend on the right of the Muslims and Arabs saw the results in Yemen, Syria and other Arab countries where Obama had set fire.
Moreover, the US withdrew hopelessly, since America is not the ‘superman’ which promotes its idea through the media. The USA has the cowboy mentality which cannot be changed by politics or media.
Obama during the long interview with Goldberg looked like a trainee public relations officer working for the Mullah regime eagerly seeking to brighten the regime but he could not support his stance with facts and incidents.
He tries to depict this regime as a lamb but all attempts failed to hide the canines of this terrorist and arrogant regime and its destructive claws and chaotic behavior in the region.
Truth is not what Obama, winner of the Noble Peace Prize, wants to tell us. It looks like the world body has given the prize to the wrong man at a wrong time because after eight years at the helm of the White House he has destroyed our region with his policy and unlimited services to Iranian terrorism.
It looks like the man seeks to become the first recipient of the ‘Mullah Award for Terrorism’.
