Middle East can turn on a new axis
Asia Times / Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
27-Dec-2008 (3 comments)

A major "house-cleaning" of the US's Middle East policy, whereby the old arrogant approach gives way to post-hegemonist behavior that is marked with full respect for the sovereign rights of the region's nation-states, is desperately needed and, again, one hopes that your administration will be able to introduce the significant changes that are required in this respect.

The Middle East, a cradle of civilizations, birthplace of three of the world's greatest monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and a fulcrum of the world's energy supply, is already broad enough and the misleading terms such as "broader Middle East" or "greater Middle East" carry the false connotation that the region is not broad or great enough, or that the outside world has a special mandate for social engineering vis-a-vis this region.

That is 19th-century Western colonialism still talking, and a real change toward the Middle East must not be limited to the policy level but also the underlying epistemological assumptions, linguistic jargons and semantics that cement neo-imperialist intentions. A wholesale change of vocabulary, to sanitize the policies infected by implicitly disparaging, even downgrading, paternalistic behavior seen on the US's part so far, is an important prerequisite of a qualitative improvement in the US's relationship with the region, away from the furnace of clashing civilizations.

Indeed, rhetoric and rhetorical... >>>

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Once again, this neocon is blabbering ...

by IraniIrooni (not verified) on

First off, this Obama administration will be no different from what we have seen in the past 8 yrs regarding foreign policies. You've got hillary (a neocon) and rahm israel emanuel (a pure neocon) with a lot of influential power on the obama team. So, forget about hoping Biden may put some sense into these shysters ... it won't happen. He's outnumbered as was Colin Powell during the first 4 Bush jr yrs.

Second, why the hell is every US politician (from the Fed to the municipalities) kissing israel's you-know-what???? We can't even say Merry Christmas these days in this CHRISTIAN country! I've seen more hanukkka stuff on the streets and in the stores than I have seen Merry Christmas stuff! This is just another sign that now that the neocons have power, they will openly expresss their neocon-ness or their judaism. These are the same ones that pushed for no religion policies in Russia and the old Soviet Union. they're the same ones where their rabbis complain about Christmas trees in airports. Hypocrisy. Its so sad that we have fallen for this stuff. Then again, anyone and everyone can get bought. You think this IL governor issue is big? I wish someone had courage to come out and show just how many politicians and lawmakers AIPAC and all the other israeli lobbies have bought ... and sold. Simply put, this is sad. For all you jews and neocons reading this - hope you had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!


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Once again this Zionist boy

by Anonymous* (not verified) on

Once again this Zionist boy is at work hoping that the U.S. will do everything to keep the fascist regime of Israel afloat a little longer. I just wonder if Obama would sell himself to Jews as easily as W did.


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once again

by MRX1 (not verified) on

Once again this IRI lackey Afrasiabi is hard at work hoping that U.S does not do anything to the islamo facist regime.
I just wonder if obama reads this web site?