[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help] 

Status: Not Logged In; Sign In

Bring Back Asylums: It's Time To Talk About Transgender Fatigue In America German Political Parties (Ex-AfD) Sign 'Fairness Pact' That Prevents Criticizing Immigration CARVING .45 CALIBER AUTOMATICS OUT OF STEEL WWII UNION SWITCH AND SIGNAL MOVIE This surprising diabetes link could protect your brain Putin and Xi to lay foundations for a new world order in Beijing Cancer Natural Solutions Q&R Is ANYONE buying this anymore? (Netanyahu) Mt Etna in Sicily Eupting These Soviet 4x4 Sedans Are Cooler Than You Think! SSRIs and School Shootings, FDA Corruption, and Why Everyone on Anti-Depressants Is Totally Unhappy St. Louis Man Who Gunned Down Police Officer Demond Taylor Is Released on $5,000 Bond How Israeli spy veterans are shaping US big tech Albanian illegal immigrant caught selling drugs to pay off 4k 'dinghy debt' to smugglers Soros-Funded Dark Money Group Secretly Paying Democrat Influencers To Shape Gen Z Politics Minnesota Shooter's Family Has CIA and DOD ties 42 GANGSTERS DRAGGED From Homes In Midnight FBI & ICE Raids | MS-13 & Trinitarios BUSTED Bill Gates EXPOSED: Secret Operatives Inside the CDC, HHS, and NIH REMOVED by RFK, Jr. Gabriel Ruiz, a man who dresses up as a woman was just arrested for battery (dating violence) "I'm Tired Of Being Trans" - Minneapolis Shooter Confesses "I Wish I Never Brain-Washed Myself" The Chart Baltimore Democrats Hope You Never See Woman with walker, 69, fatally shot in face on New York City street: Paul Joseph Watson: Bournemouth 1980 Vs 2025 FDA Revokes Emergency Authorization For COVID-19 Vaccines NATO’s Worst Nightmare Is Happening Right Now in Ukraine - Odessa is Next To Fall? Why do men lose it when their chicky-poo dies? Christopher Caldwell: How Immigration Is Erasing Whites, Christians, and the Middle Class SSRI Connection? Another Trans Shooter, Another Massacre – And They Erased His Video Something 1/2 THE SIZE of the SUN has Entered our Solar System, and We Have NO CLUE What it is... Massive Property Tax Fraud Exposed - $5.1 Trillion Bond Scam Will Crash System Israel Sold American Weapons to Azerbaijan to Kill Armenian Christians

Editorial
See other Editorial Articles

Title: Why Americans don't understand the Middle East
Source: [None]
URL Source: [None]
Published: Sep 16, 2012
Author: http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012
Post Date: 2012-09-16 15:23:06 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 51

Why Americans don't understand the Middle East Posted By Stephen M. Walt Friday, September 14, 2012 - 11:25 AM Share

I hardly ever watch network news, but I happened to stumble across this appalling report on NBC's "Rock Center" last night. In this clip, reporter Richard Engel blames this week's anti-American violence on "conspiracy theories" that Arab populations have been fed over the years by their rulers, including the idea that the United States and Israel are colluding to control the Middle East.

It's no secret there are conspiracy theories circulating in the Middle East (as there are here in the good old USA: Remember the "birthers?") I've heard them every time I've lectured in the region and done my best to debunk them. But by attributing Arab and Muslim anger solely to these ideas, Engel's report paints a picture of the United States (and by implication, Israel) as wholly blameless. In his telling, the U.S. has had nothing but good intentions for the past century, but the intended beneficiaries of our generosity don't get it solely because they've been misled by their leaders.

In short, Operation Cast Lead never happened, Lebanon wasn't invaded in 1982 or bombed relentlessly for a month in 2006, the United States has never turned a blind eye towards repeated human rights violations by every single one of its Middle Eastern allies, drones either don't exist or never killed an innocent victim, the occupation of Iraq in 2003 was just a little misunderstanding, and the Palestinians ought to be grateful to us for what they've been left after forty-plus years of occupation. To say this in no way absolves governments in the region for responsibility for many of their current difficulties, but Americans do themselves no favors by ignoring our own contribution to the region's ills.

In short, you want to get some idea of why most Americans have no idea why we are unpopular in the region, this example of sanitized "analysis" is illuminating, though not in the way that Engel and NBC intended.

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  

[Home]  [Headlines]  [Latest Articles]  [Latest Comments]  [Post]  [Sign-in]  [Mail]  [Setup]  [Help]