Straddling the Fence, the Obama Administration Has Lost the Islamic World's Trust
Published in Chinanews.com
(China) on 31 March 2011
by Chinanews.com (link to original)
(China) on 31 March 2011
by Chinanews.com (link to original)
Translated from
by Qu Xiao.
Edited by Alex Brewer.
It has been two weeks since the western powers started the military interference in Libya. The American President Obama said that the U.S. government would not take down Gaddafi using military force, fearing that what happened with Iraq might happen again with Libya. WenHui Daily, a newspaper from Hong Kong, published a report on March 30th commenting that although the U.S. emphasized again and again that they no longer adopted unilateralism and chose their steps carefully when dealing with the complicated international relations, the conference on 29th in London still showed the Islamic world’s lack of trust in America’s hegemony and its allied powers in the west.
Obama insisted that the military operations in Libya should involve the participations of various parties. But after the bombing of the united army, Musa, secretary general of the Arab League, who has been backing the idea of setting a no-fly zone, immediately criticized the air raid and refused to attend the conference in London. Consequently, 17 out of 24 members of the Arab League had refused to attend the conference, including Egypt, who just suffered a domestic insurgency. The cold attitude of the Islamic world to the military operations carried out by the western powers is fairly clear.
As soon as Obama took the office when he first won the election he showed a friendly olive branch to the Islamic world. But when the puppet authorities that America has been trying to set up in the Arabian countries in the Middle East for so many years finally began to tumble down, his tough stand towards the Egyptian President Mubarak offended a longtime ally, Saudi Arabia.
When Bahrain was also caught up in the mess, Obama did not dare to press hard on the Royal Family of Bahrain because of the high sensitivity on the religious matters in the country. Obama then chose to be soft. But Bahrain knew that America was not a reliable friend, so they simply let the Saudi Arabian army go straight into the country and help them to hold down the insurgency.
At the end of the comment on the report from Huiwen Daily, it said that Obama is a practical man, who is unwilling to let the ideology get in his way and affect his decisions. His flexibility, however, has offended his ally Saudi Arabia, which puts America in a hard spot. Take the Libyan incident as an example: the conservatives criticized that he refused to let America take the lead in the military operations; the liberals condemned him of his interference into other country’s internal affairs. Obama’s seemingly friendly olive branch has turned into a laughable misunderstanding to the American people. Even till today, many Americans still believe that Obama is actually a Muslim.
Obama insisted that the military operations in Libya should involve the participations of various parties. But after the bombing of the united army, Musa, secretary general of the Arab League, who has been backing the idea of setting a no-fly zone, immediately criticized the air raid and refused to attend the conference in London. Consequently, 17 out of 24 members of the Arab League had refused to attend the conference, including Egypt, who just suffered a domestic insurgency. The cold attitude of the Islamic world to the military operations carried out by the western powers is fairly clear.
As soon as Obama took the office when he first won the election he showed a friendly olive branch to the Islamic world. But when the puppet authorities that America has been trying to set up in the Arabian countries in the Middle East for so many years finally began to tumble down, his tough stand towards the Egyptian President Mubarak offended a longtime ally, Saudi Arabia.
When Bahrain was also caught up in the mess, Obama did not dare to press hard on the Royal Family of Bahrain because of the high sensitivity on the religious matters in the country. Obama then chose to be soft. But Bahrain knew that America was not a reliable friend, so they simply let the Saudi Arabian army go straight into the country and help them to hold down the insurgency.
At the end of the comment on the report from Huiwen Daily, it said that Obama is a practical man, who is unwilling to let the ideology get in his way and affect his decisions. His flexibility, however, has offended his ally Saudi Arabia, which puts America in a hard spot. Take the Libyan incident as an example: the conservatives criticized that he refused to let America take the lead in the military operations; the liberals condemned him of his interference into other country’s internal affairs. Obama’s seemingly friendly olive branch has turned into a laughable misunderstanding to the American people. Even till today, many Americans still believe that Obama is actually a Muslim.