Obama's Mideast speech -- yet another doomed attempt to reach out to the Mideast

Lots of people are asking me what I thought about Obama's speech. Truth is I didn't bother listening to it, nor do I plan to. Practically every US administration has endorsed a policy of "reaching out the Middle East" for as long as I have been alive. All of these efforts fizzled out when it came time to actually back up the fancy words with real, substantive actions. Speeches are written by speech writers, professional hacks whose job is to string together pretty words. That's all speeches are. Substantive acts, that's what would interest me. Speeches? Not so much.

The problem is that we live in a media-spectacle driven world in which these sorts of manufactured events substitute for real, substantive news -- so people assume that they should care what some guy said in some speech because by golly the speech will be discussed in the news a lot. But it is just showbiz, folks - a lot of talk about a talk, razzle dazzle and nothing more -- unless it is backed up by substantive acts. 

And I don't believe that any substantive acts will follow this speech.  The mere fact that Obama chose Egypt to deliver the speech is proof enough for me -- Egypt, where a kleptocratic authoritarian regime headed by a petty tin-pot US-financed "President for Life" is struggling to stay in power by resorting to shooting voters in the street every few years to keep them away from ballot boxes. The choice of Egypt as the venue for the speech tells me clearly that we're just going to have more of usual bullshit.

Color me unimpressed. 

Comments

[Daniel]

Thanks for your commentary and insight from your perspective. I am thankful for the internet.

From my perspective, I am relieved that Obama has made an attempt to inject something constructive into the region, converse to some of the destructive things the US government has done there in the past. I hope that his speech would help mark a positive turning point in the West's relationship with the Mideast. I agree with you, though, that a speech alone is not enough.

Peace,
DG

[mb]

Excellent commentary. Obama is full of words, another Zionist puppet.