YOU CANNOT PUT OUT FIRE WITH FLAMES
by Amjad Atallah

The Washington Note
April 6, 2009 Monday 5:09 PM EST

President Obama quoted this Turkish aphorism toward the end of his
27 minute speech before the Turkish Parliament. It was, in essence,
a summation of his rejection of the policies of the previous eight
years. The president emphasized provided a comprehensive overview of
Middle East and Caucus politics that showed us a little bit of how
he views the conflicts in the region.

And perhaps of more lasting import, Obama noted that the US is not
and will not ever be at war with Islam, finally laying to rest the
bastardization of the conflict of civilizations thesis promoted by
so many neo-cons.

The President didn’t only rely on metaphors – he offered a concrete
analysis of conflict from Cyprus and Israel/Palestine in the west
to Nagarno-Karabakh and Pakistan in the east. And he admitted US
weaknesses before he gently chided his hosts on their own.

First a little about that last point. Everyone hates hypocrisy –
children are particularly good at noticing it in adults. Nations tend
to be like that too. The President seemed to grasp that in his speech
without letting anyone off the hook.

It has always seemed hypocritical in many nations around the world
for the US to criticize a lack of democracy in one country while
embracing it in another. Hard to criticize Turkey for not coming to
terms with the 1915 killing of Armenians without admitting that the
US has not come to terms with the full horrors of slavery and of the
annihilation of native American nations.

On conflicts, the President tied, perhaps unconsciously, four ethnic
conflicts over territory: Kurdish activity in Turkey and Iraq, the
Armenian-Azeri ethnic dispute in Nagarno-Karabakh, Cypriot talks
to re-unite the country into a "bi-communal federation" (as the
president put it), and the US effort to partition Israeli control
over both its own state and the Palestinian territory into two states
"Israel and Palestine."

On this last ethnic/territorial conflict in particular, the President
seemed to want to do what few in his administration have so far been
willing to – put an exclamation point on the differences between US
and international interests and those in Israel who want to maintain
the occupation.

He made a point of sounding fair – "The United States strongly supports
the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in
peace and security," he said. "Both Israelis and Palestinians must
take the steps that are necessary to build confidence. Both must live
up to the commitments they have made."

But he also used the future tense – noting that the creation of two
states is a goal that "I will actively pursue." For those who have
noted the lack of a new implementation policy so far, that may have
offered hope that one will be announced soon.

The President also tied in his now standard outreach to Iran
emphasizing that Iran had a choice between seeking a weapon or
economic integration. As the Financial Times noted today, this may
be part of a shift in emphasis to preventing Iran’s weaponizing of
its nuclear program rather than attempts to freeze its industrial
(including nuclear) development.

On Iraq, he noted that the US was leaving soon and that everyone had
to help to make sure that Iraq was secure and united (but he pointedly
did not comment on how democratic it would have to be).

On al-Qaeda, he noted Turkey’s help in Afghanistan and emphasized
the necessity of preventing the terrorist group a "safe haven" in
Pakistan or Afghanistan.

This was not Obama ‘s "Muslim speech" we are told. But it was a good
(and maybe precedent making?) speech to give in the Muslim country
that has most entrenched its ties with the West while maintaining an
Islamist modernizing government.

It was a pleasant juxtaposition with the embarrassing performance in
Doha last week of the Arab League which applauded itself on feting
Sudan’s indicted president Omar al-Bashir.