23 March 2016By Tariq Alhomayed
The Atlantic magazine published a long story about the US President Barack
Obama and his view of foreign policy under the title ''The Obama Doctrine''. As
a result, Arab newspapers said that Obama is attacking Saudi Arabia and hates
Arabs.
It is wrong to portray Obama's view as a stance against Arabs or Saudi Arabia
as this is not true. We should not move emotionally in this direction, as
Obama's view is not about a specific party and shows that he lives in a bubble
where he prefers to read fiction rather than books on politics or history. He
probably also reads reports presented to him and thus demonstrates that the
president is able to ignore and override institutions in America!
What the magazine published is not against a particular individual because
Obama criticised everyone except Iran and Russia, of course. He criticised the
Europeans, the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and described the
British Prime Minister David Cameron as ''absent minded''.
He criticized Netanyahu, the Turkish President and Gulf states and is of the
opinion that they seek to use America's ''muscles'' to serve their interests and
demand a free ride! The article also stated that Obama told a foreign guest
that he had heard a member of congress criticising him and told the foreign
guest that he should have confronted the member over those criticisms. Obama
also interrupted the Israeli Prime Minister whilst he was explaining the
circumstances of the region by asking him whether he believes that the first
African-American president and the son of a mother who provided for him
financially does not know the region!
All of this indicates that we are dealing with a man who lives in a bubble, is
full of arrogance and idealism. He dreamt of seeing Wael Ghoneim as the
president of Egypt and according to The Atlantic, thinks that ISIS does not
constitute an internal threat to America but that climate change does! It is
also said that he called for the departure of Bashar Al-Assad because he
believed that Al-Assad would leave at the same speed as the former Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak!
The article also shows that Obama criticised the former and current
Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry respectively. It also
indicates that he was irritated by his ambassador to the United Nations
Samantha Power as well as the US National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and
that he was worried that the reports submitted to him were misleading and
would lead to foreign interventions that he did not want to undertake. What is
worse is that his close team describes the street on which the most important
research centre in Washington is located as the Arab occupied area. After
this, can it be said that Obama, who has attacked Arab societies and their
values just as he attacked Europeans, hates Arabs or only Saudi Arabia?
Of course not, by attacking everyone including members of his administration
and his western allies, the article published by ''The New Atlantic'' shows that
the president lives in a bubble, is a dreamer and is frustrated. He rushed
into attacking everyone before he left and here is his administration trying
to limit the damage caused by his undiplomatic views.
Tariq Alhomayed is the former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat.
Mr. Alhomyed has been a guest analyst and commentator on numerous news and
current affair programs, and during his distinguished career has held numerous
positions at Asharq Al-Awsat, amongst other newspapers. Notably, he was the
first journalist to interview Osama Bin Ladin's mother. Mr. Alhomayed holds a
bachelor's degree in media studies from King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah.
He is based in London.
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