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| Wapo Columnist Gives Obama Credit for Iran Election Protests |
| 2009-06-16 |
| By David Ignatius The stormy Iranian elections are one more sign of how the world has been shaken up in the age of Barack Obama. of course if unstormy elections had placed 'moderate' terrorists in charge in Tehran, that would have also shown Obama's greatness - in fact that was the prepared abc, cnn, cbs, wapo, nytimes, nbc narrative up to 72 hours ago U.S. intelligence officials consulted with the White House as speechwriters were preparing the Cairo address -- seeking to calibrate the message in a way that would be most effective in countering Muslim extremists. These officials believe that Obama, with his coolly rational approach, is suggesting a new pathway for young people who might otherwise be tempted by jihadist rhetoric. "What the president has done thus far is create a strategic framework for understanding the U.S. in a different way," said a second intelligence official. Obama is "chipping away" at the radical narrative and "increasing the number of alternatives to that radical view," he explained. "He's making more attractive the idea that change can occur outside the radicalization process." A similar analysis of Obama's outreach to the Muslim world comes from Tawfik Hamid, a former jihadist from Egypt who was once part of a network that included Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 official in al-Qaeda. Hamid argued in an interview that Obama has encouraged "critical thinking" among young Muslims -- pushing them to transcend the simple categories of halal (pure and Islamic) and haram (impure and un-Islamic). Hamid recalled that among his jihadist group in Cairo, there was a saying: al fikr kufr, which loosely translates as "To think makes you an infidel." Obama challenges that. Reason vs. unreason; outreach vs. closed minds; connection with the modern world vs. isolation and backwardness; freedom vs. repression. This is the shape of the debate in Iran and much of the rest of the Muslim world as the age of Obama moves forward. For once, it's an argument that puts America firmly (but unobtrusively) on the side of the people. What we're seeing in Tehran is a reminder that millions of Muslims hunger for change -- but they want to make it themselves. |
| Posted by:Lord garth |
| #3 Hussein O apologized for US intervention in 1953. In fact, those events were largely national. Major, unprofessional, CIA bragging followed events in which their role was minimal. |
| Posted by: Black Bart Sliter4867 2009-06-16 17:15 |
| #2 ignatius meanders between insightful and fatuous (sp?). |
| Posted by: liberal hawk 2009-06-16 14:11 |
| #1 Did he write this in bed without disturbing Zero's sleep? No wonder he didn't answer the 3 AM phone call, Ignatius was still awake curled up in his arms nibbling on his ear. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2009-06-16 13:03 |