STORY SUMMARY
By Rami G. Khouri
The Daily Star, Lebanon
Following U.S. policy in the Middle East is a dizzying endeavor, as I was reminded this week while monitoring President Barack Obama’s visit to the region, the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the start of the Anglo-American invasion and war in Iraq, and the dynamics around Iran’s nuclear work.
The fundamental tension is between, on the one hand, the ringing, repeated assertion of the democratic spirit that defines the U.S. and its self-appointed role as the purveyor of democracy and the rule of law for others around the world; and on the other hand, the United States’ refusal to apply those values to many of its own foreign-policy decisions.
That power includes moral, economic, military, diplomatic and cultural dimensions, comprising numerous instruments that Obama could use to make it clear the U.S. sees justice and sovereign statehood for the Palestinians as real strategic assets for the U.S. and Israel, as well as for everyone else in the region.
On this 10th anniversary of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, the American people and government still broadly refuse to implement perhaps the single most significant and operational element in the kind of democracy the U.S. says it wants to promote around the world: accountability of public officials according to the rule of law.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2013/Mar-23/211187-following-america-is-a-dizzying-endeavor.ashx#ixzz2OUXvXLC6
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Categories: Americas, Iraq, Kazakhstan, United States
What have the 200 million Arabs with all the PETRODOLLARS done for the Palestinians. They had 65 years to help them.
Now suddenly Mr Khouri has awakened from a deep sleep & wants an INFIDEL to help the Muslims.
Instead of blaming US President,he should ask those Arab leaders to do something.
Mr. Anwar Yousafzai: I have personally approached Petrodollar Arabs to ask them that I could help Palestine (with their petrodollars). They said that they would gladly finance my project if I could prove to them that the Israelis would give me access. Do you not know that not even one bag of cement (paid by petrodollars or not) can enter Gaza without permission from Israel? The Israelis say that a bag of cement has ‘dual purpose’. It could be used for a house or it could be used for a bunker and therefore we will not permit it. – And: why should anybody, Petrodollar Arab or European taxpayer, continue to subsidize Palestine for sixty years when lifting the Israeli blockade could permit their economy to take off? And the US taxpayer keeps spending on Israel, whatever international laws they break, it does not matter. It is eternal love for them. (see Barak Hussain Obama’s speech).