I hope the PR offensive (look! bright! shiny!) is effective enough to distract Arabs and Muslims from our President's silence or approval of the bloodbath in Gaza, the missile strike in Pakistan, and our continuing, curious tendency in Afghanistan to target weddings and funerals with our bombs and bullets. Somehow I'm guessing that ultimately they'll care about those events more than our President's experiences in Indonesia.

"Obama conceded that the terrorist leaders "seem nervous" in the wake of Bush's departure, which is, of course, true."

By electing Obama and rejecting continuation of Bush policy, the US has recreated for al Qaida the old Vietnam adage, "What if they threw a war and nobody showed up?"

For eight years Bush seemed determined to do everything he could for al Qaida. He kept OBL safe and sound, he promoted and justified immoral acts such as torture, he did amazing ad campaigns for al Qaida, exaggerated their power and connections, all while keeping up an al Qaida recruiting program which cost taxpayers about $10 billion per month and over 4000 lives since 2003. Obama has suddenly dropped American support for al Qaida in a big way, of course they are nervous.

Re: the "respect we enjoyed 20 or 30 years ago in the Muslim world" wasn't it in 1989 that Pan Am Flight 103 was attacked by Libya? And, let's not forget that in 1979 that the Americans were taken hostage in Iran?

That seems like he's aiming for a pretty low bar on "respect".

Scott is right, but BHO knew the Israelis were going to continue bombing right up to Jan 19, which they did, and by no coincidence. That all had to be on Bush's watch.
Convincing the Muslim world that we like them may turn out to be easier than convincing the Likud that Israel's interests are better served by negotiation than by continuing the 30-year attempt to prevail by arms.
Tough row to hoe.

FAUX will be reporting about a "Sleeper sending first report to handlers".

Westside, do you remember when Cap Weinberger had Reagan order the USS New Jersey and other naval vessels to take sides in a peace keeping mission and use fire support which killed many Muslims? Lots of "respect" was lost, forever, that day in Beirut.

But, hey, snow has fallen in the Middle East. Omen?

Westside Buppie,

If by "respect", you believe that Obama meant "universal respect without a single voice of dissent", you're bound to be disappointed. But if he meant widespread respect among Muslim populations, then we're getting somewhere. Heck, even in Iran in 1979 there were plenty of moderate, pro-American voices. They just happened to be overpowered by student radicals and their religious leadership.

Someone might want to stage a few ambulances outside FOXNews HQ, where this will be viewed as a surrender and the end of the world as we know it.

Someone might want to stage a few ambulances outside FOXNews HQ, where this will be viewed as a surrender and the end of the world as we know it.

I'll have to agree with that, as there's nothing quite so nice as seeing the "volksturm" at FOX get bitch-slapped out the top-floor windows of a high-rise by a President who, among many other things, knows how to be Presidential.

It's also nice to refer to a President by using a capital "P" again; unlike the scurrilous pretender-of-a-predecessor who recently relocated to some hell-hole-of-a-dump in Texas....

He added that his personal background -- "I have Muslim members of my family; I have lived in Muslim countries" -- helps shape his perspective on the region.

And Wingnuttia starts shrieking "he is a secret Muslim!!!" in....

5... 4... 3... 2...

President Carter is right. If there is not a two state solution,sooner or later the Palastinians win by virtue of their birth rate. One vote,one person. There can be no second class citizens or apartied.

Viewed on its own, this is a great reach-out to the Arab world. But combined with Obama's non-change on Iran, it sends a very interesting signal. We used to play the Arabs against the Persians for our own benefit. It appears we will now simply back the Arabs and isolate the Persians. It's probably a smart move for now, and it may get Iran to move in the right direction. But it is a risky strategy. It cannot be maintained in the long run. But if Iran moves and we readjust, this could work out well. But we must be nimble to make it work. We'll see.

Obama will need to give an interview for al-jazeera. This is the key regional forum, not al-arabiya. He will need to hold direct talks with Iran as well as Hamas. He must replace Israel as our key ally in the region with Turkey and work with them closely as a diplomatic mediator between all the regional parties. Propose a means of regional access to civilian nuclear energy in return for a region wide nuclear weapons ban which would entail disarming Israel along with Iranian compliance with inspections. Simply propose borders for a contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalam as its capital and impose it on all parties. Form a regional peacekeeping arrangement consisting of troops representing all regional countries, and minimal to zero extra-regional involvment. This is not somehting the U.S. can do alone, but must be formed regionally. However, Obama should promote it as much as possible. The region is already moving in this direction and we will be fored to deal with it. Resistance to such regional integration will be a cause of continued violence and disorder.