Sunday, May 22, 2005
Laura Bush in the Middle East
Laura Bush, the Washington Post reports this morning, is on a mission to the Middle East "intended partly to help defuse anti-American sentiment in the region" ("Protesters Mob Laura Bush in Jerusalem," free regis. required). The "protesters" referred to in the headline came from the Israeli right and from the Muslim street.
Laudable as such trips are -- and such symbolic gestures are indeed important -- ultimately they'll be as futile as other Bush administration attempts to change the U.S. image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world. The estrangement comes not (only) from reports of desecration of the Quran, but from much deeper, long-standing principles and practices of U.S. foreign policy: the war against Iraq, U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia, and -- probably most significant -- U.S. military and financial support for Israel (regardless of repeated Israeli abuses in the Occupied Territories, beginning with the occupation itself). Until these policies change -- which of course likely means until there's a new administration in Washington -- the anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East and elsewhere will not substantially improve ... regardless how many goodwill visits the First Lady makes.
Laudable as such trips are -- and such symbolic gestures are indeed important -- ultimately they'll be as futile as other Bush administration attempts to change the U.S. image abroad, particularly in the Muslim world. The estrangement comes not (only) from reports of desecration of the Quran, but from much deeper, long-standing principles and practices of U.S. foreign policy: the war against Iraq, U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia, and -- probably most significant -- U.S. military and financial support for Israel (regardless of repeated Israeli abuses in the Occupied Territories, beginning with the occupation itself). Until these policies change -- which of course likely means until there's a new administration in Washington -- the anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East and elsewhere will not substantially improve ... regardless how many goodwill visits the First Lady makes.
