The urgency of the Cairo address

I believe there is very little doubt that 9/11 and George Bush following policies have changed the Middle East forever. Results of the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq will of course take years to become evident and their influence in the rest of the Region will take even longer. From this comes the urgency, for the Democratic party, to deny this merit to Republicans as quickly as possible and be able to claim ownership of “we changed the Arab world", we and Obama with his historical speech in Cairo did it”.

The “historical speech”, although better than I expected (apart for a couple of horrible blunders of which I will write sometime in the near future and the usual stupid apologies, could have been straight out of Bush’s mouth), was full of good intentions and scarce on solutions; if Obama thinks that he can turn around the Arab world with nice words, he better think again. Arab regimes survive on lies and by redirecting hatred (as he bravely mentioned); not one of them however, will commit political suicide because a black man (which they despise and still enslave in many Muslim countries) asks them to forget the past and embrace the future.

We will have to wait and see, but in my opinion the best we can expect is business as usual. As for the worst…I don’t even want to think about it.

PS: For the religious authorities of the Cairo university from which Obama launched his kumbaya message, he is an apostate and according to the Quran should be killed.

Indonesia’s Voters Retreat From Radical Islam 2

On 11 May 09 The director of the National Survey Institute, Umar S Bakry, said the legislative election results with the secular Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tripling its share of the vote in parliamentary election results announced over the weekend, shows support for religious parties has nosedived in Indonesia. Official results from last month's vote show that support for the main Islamist parties declined from 39% five years ago to just 24% with experts attributing the decline on more modern, urban voters viewing Islamic parties as intolerant. (Republika/AP)

Very good news indeed; this confirms the trend indicated in my earlier post.

Like a Prayer

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is marking today's National Day of Prayer [7 may]-- but not publicly.

The president has signed a proclamation about the day in private. There'll be no public ceremony involving prominent clerics, lawmakers or prayers, as there was when George W. Bush was in the White House.

Just like a dream, you are not what you see
Just like a prayer, no choice your voice can take me there…

Way to go, B.O.!

Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Atta Qassim said the resurgence of Al Qaida was fueled by the U.S. release of nearly 4,000 insurgents in 2009. Qassim said the released insurgents have been returning to both Al Qaida and organized crime.

But…but…they always told me it was because they didn’t like Bush!

Indonesia’s Voters Retreat From Radical Islam

You mean … Bush was right?