Monday, February 18, 2008

Brzezinski Still Doesn't Get Iran

In an earlier post I wrote about a speech Brzezinski gave last year, where he spoke about the US (as well as Israel and Iran) putting their security interests before the interests of others, leading to his addressing:
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because it is poisoning the political atmosphere in the Middle East. It is generating more and more hostility towards the United States. And only people in a state of denial would disagree with that because the fact is anyone you talk to in the Middle East finds that to be one of the reasons for this more pervasive anti-Americanism which al Qaeda and groups like it can exploit.
The Belmont Club notes that Brzezinski's take on the Arab world does not appear to hold true today:
Tamara Cofman Wittes, who's attending the annual 5th Annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum notices that anti-US rhetoric is way down this year. Instead of fire-breathing anti-American keynote speakers, "the opening keynote was instead delivered by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who argued that Muslims in Afghanistan and Bosnia were right to expect and accept American military intervention to relieve their suffering, and America was just in coming to their aid."

The reason for the change in tone has been a grudging respect for successes in American foreign policy and Washington's new focus on Iran.
At the same time, the Arab world appears to be very taken with Barack Obama, which leads to the observation that not only is it ironic that Obama can convey the image of rallying the US at the same time as appearing to be on the Arab side, but also:
The other irony of course is that the Arab attraction for Obama is potentially at odds with the Arab desire for a powerful America which can contain Iran.
If Obama is elected president, someone is going to be awfully disappointed--especially if Obama follows the advice of his foreign policy adviser: Zbigniew Brzezinski.

[Hat tip: Instapundit]

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