A Wish for Obama on his Middle East Policy

It has become a matter of great controversy in the United States whether people say they want President Barack Obama to "succeed" or to "fail."

Of course, it depends on what one means.

To say that one hopes he succeeds in terms of doing a good job is certainly a hope that all should share.

Whether one wants him to succeed in the sense of having the policies he wanted to implement when he was elected come to fruition, is another matter. Already, these have been tempered by some dose of reality and some good--along with three bad)--appointments of personnel in foreign policymaking.

Aside from anti-American radical forces (of which there are many), nobody in the Middle East should want Obama to fail. Rather, more moderate Arab regimes (that is, excluding Syria, Sudan, and Libya, along possibly with Lebanon after the June elections), Arab liberals, Kurds, Berbers, and Israeli Jews do have a wish for Obama....

They all hope he will learn, alter his policies, and then succeed completely with them.

As to what he should learn and how he should alter his policies, well, that's what this blog is about.