Obama Less Popular in Arab World Than Bush...

[Ben]

‪Obama Less Popular in Arab World Than Bush‬‏ - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz1bGrtpAhU)

[Ben]

And an article about it from the Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/07/obama-viewed-less-favorably-arab-world-poll-shows/yIVn6f6PueWbdhZutglhoJ/index.html

[Ben]

Whaddya think? Is Obama merely a continuation of Bush/Cheney???? We should all remember that Cheney was the administration.
Worse than Watergate by John Dean is an interesting book on the Bush... I mean, Cheney administration.

[trish]

Whaddya think, should the U.S. have a reliably continuous foreign policy or should our word extend only so far as the administration that gave it? Obama's policy on Afghanistan is exactly as advertised as is his policy in Iraq. He's a centrist, always was.

Sadly the drop in Obama's popularity in Egypt and other North African/Middle Eastern countries is due to the fact that in their view we haven't interfered enough in helping the cause of the Arab Spring. Are you advocating that we should do so?

[onmyknees]

Whaddya think? Is Obama merely a continuation of Bush/Cheney???? We should all remember that Cheney was the administration.
Worse than Watergate by John Dean is an interesting book on the Bush... I mean, Cheney administration.

Ben....where do you come up with this shit? I mean really. First off...you weren't even a twinkle back during Watergate, and although Dean has become a hero of the left, most seem to forget he's a convicted felon and spent 4 months in jail for his part in the cover up. Here's a few words from an author who penned a book about Dean's decades long attempt to revise his place in history..

Contacted for this article, Rosen replied: "My book speaks for itself, and I think it's noteworthy that Dean has entirely avoided engaging its substance. Dean himself is well aware that his historical reputation has suffered enormously in the last two decades, and so he resorts to frivolous litigation and bullying tactics to rehabilitate himself. Not since Albert Speer [a Nazi minister convicted at the Nuremberg Trials] has a historical figure so assiduously used his post-prison writings to muddy and distort the historical record of the events in which he was culpable."

Now you want us to put some credence in a book authored by a convicted felon, lead counsel to tricky dick, then later a rat to save his own ass? Sorry Ben...it's called credibility and he has none.
While historians will agree that Cheney was a powerful player in the Bush Admin.....it was only because W. wanted it that way. Funny that no one inside that circle nor anyone else in the know seems to agree with you or you new idol, John Dean. Let's move on to something more recent...can we?

[Stavros]

A more pertinent point might be to note that in the first phase of the Arab Spring, getting rid of the dictators was a huge step forward: but, just as these men were part of a complex politicial-military economy, the next phase, dismantling the connection the military has with the economy and the political superstructure, is proving to be harder.

That some Arabs feel so useless they imagine the Seventh Cavalry -or SEALS- can parachute into Tunisia, Egypt, or even Libya -to do what?- is, I regret to say, symptomatic of a chronic sense of powerlessness that some Arabs have; even as they take control of their own destiny. Iraq merely proves that each Arab state has its own history, its own social and political profiles -Iraq under Saddam was radically different from Egypt under Mubarak, for example; 'decapitation' is not always a solution, anywhere.

The reform movement needs to build from the bottom up, working through the lower echelons of the military and the economy, continuing to organise and propose reasonable reforms, to do it for themselves and feel good about it. The West can help of course but not by pumping billions of $$ into the region, $$ you/we don't have anyway.

For what its worth I remember John Dean and all those other hypocrites from Watergate, I assumed he was doing all these things after gaol as penance, to be 'rehabilitated' into society -had it happened in 1993, I guess he would have appeared on Oprah, crying his eyes out...

[robertlouis]

What John Dean seems to have conveniently forgotten is that it was the Nixon administration, in which he was a willing and active participant, that not only used overtly criminal acts to further its own perverted ends, but which also started the Republican party's steady spiral into paranoia and hatred from which it shows, almost 40 years on, no sign of recovery. In fact, the gadarene rush towards extremism shows no signs of slowing down, if the current GOP stance on debt is anything to go by.

So the relevant thesis is not that W's administration was in some way worse than Nixon's, rather that it was simply another ratchet turn in a succession of such moves further towards the right that Nixon, and by his direct involvement Dean, began in 1972.

Hubris always leaves a bitter taste.

[Ben]

Ben....where do you come up with this shit? I mean really. First off...you weren't even a twinkle back during Watergate, and although Dean has become a hero of the left, most seem to forget he's a convicted felon and spent 4 months in jail for his part in the cover up. Here's a few words from an author who penned a book about Dean's decades long attempt to revise his place in history..

Contacted for this article, Rosen replied: "My book speaks for itself, and I think it's noteworthy that Dean has entirely avoided engaging its substance. Dean himself is well aware that his historical reputation has suffered enormously in the last two decades, and so he resorts to frivolous litigation and bullying tactics to rehabilitate himself. Not since Albert Speer [a Nazi minister convicted at the Nuremberg Trials] has a historical figure so assiduously used his post-prison writings to muddy and distort the historical record of the events in which he was culpable."

Now you want us to put some credence in a book authored by a convicted felon, lead counsel to tricky dick, then later a rat to save his own ass? Sorry Ben...it's called credibility and he has none.
While historians will agree that Cheney was a powerful player in the Bush Admin.....it was only because W. wanted it that way. Funny that no one inside that circle nor anyone else in the know seems to agree with you or you new idol, John Dean. Let's move on to something more recent...can we?

I'm not sure, onmyknees, what you mean by Dean being a "hero" of the "left." I wouldn't really categorize anyone as a hero. I'd place people in the: he or she is a good citizen slot... :)
And, too, I'm befuddled by what people mean by left and right. I mean, does the so-called right support gay marriage and transgender rights?
I think America, because there are 75 percent of us who are Christian, would reflect those values. I think most Christians are kind, compassionate and caring.
I think it's the extreme side that has usurped Christian decency and kindness and compassion. And, too, morality. But, again, is that level of hatred for others coming from the left of the political spectrum or the right? I don't write this to be flippant. I'm quite serious.
I mention that it's an interesting book. And Dean's point being: what Cheney/Bush and company did was much worse than what Nixon did. I mean, Watergate was a burglary gone bad. (Here's another interesting book. Pic below -- :))
What Bush and company did -- eavesdropping, torture -- presented us with an extreme and lawless administration....
The Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens was its clearest and most undeniable lawbreaking.
Three Federal Judges -- Vaughn Walker, Anna Taylor and Ron Gilman -- all found Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program was illegal. And the law is quite clear on this. Anyone who violates it has committed a felony. And shall be subject to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each offense.
Anyway, well, President Nixon said to David Frost: When the President does it that means that it is not illegal.
And Bush lived by those very words. Fact is: no one, not even the President of the U.S., is above the law. But, well, we've been inculcated or taught to think that politicians are above the law. They aren't. No one is.
I mean, Obama's war on Libya is illegal. He refuses to get authorization from the Congress. An impeachable offense.
It's just part and parcel of the culture in Washington.

[SammiValentine]

" Obama Less Popular in Arab World Than Bush..." - lol. not exactly the calmest time in recent years to hold a survey on the American administration in the middle east? Did they remember to hand out free t-shirts and mugs whilst surveying?:)

Must of been a slow news day ???

[robertlouis]

" Obama Less Popular in Arab World Than Bush..." - lol. not exactly the calmest time in recent years to hold a survey on the American administration in the middle east? Did they remember to hand out free t-shirts and mugs whilst surveying?:)

Must of been a slow news day ???

And presumably he's unpopular because they don't think he's doing quite enough to help the Arab spring. How that makes him less popular than Dubya after his illegal invasion of an Arab nation is beyond me.

[russtafa]

do the Arab countries love China?

[robertlouis]

do the Arab countries love China?

Depends how much money they're pouring in. Sounds cynical but probably true.

[Prospero]

I have never seen Chinese people in the Middle east.... but I've not been to Iraq

[Prospero]

There is one thing that might make him less popular than Bush - and its the same quality that makes some Americans think he's a Muslim and others argue that he isn't American... for racism is pretty strong in parts of the Arab world....

[Stavros]

I have never seen Chinese people in the Middle east.... but I've not been to Iraq

There used to be a Chinese restaurant near the 3rd circle in Amman, it was founded by an ex-pilot from Taiwan who was a personal friend of King Hussein and who for that reason was allowed to import pork and cook it in his -excellent- establishment (which was also licensed).

There are small-scale Chinese merchants in the UAE particularly Abu Dhabi on Sheikh Rashid bin Said al-Maktoum street (the main hub in the 'centre' insofar as Abu Dhabi has one). On the streets at nights and weekends Chinese women rent mobile phones call-by-call for Indian workers who can't afford to buy one; it is alleged that some of them offer other 'services' when it gets dark....

Historically the Communists were soft-core backers of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arabian Gulf in the 1970s by which time this movement -at its strongest in the second half of the 1960s- had in effect been defeated by the combined forces of Iran and Jordan (under British strategic command). The Chinese interventions in Oman and Southern Yemen had more to do with competition with the USSR which at the time (1970s-80s) was on the way out of Egypt and on the way in to Iraq.

Israel employs Chinese labourers on its farms -in fact a substantial proportion of Israel's agricultural goods are produced by non-Israeli's from mostly China, Thailand and Sri Lanka -they are preferred over local Palestinians as part of the Israel's labour genocide of its co-habitants.

Commercially, China is trying to sell its cheaper cars to the Middle Eastern market and beginning to show some success in dislodging Mercedes and Toyota...