some guy in lebanon

From the Daily Star, November 25th, 2008, by Yours Truly:

Click here for the Original Article from the Daily Star, Published November 26th, 2008

BEIRUT: Agreements, not controversy, dominated a discussion at the American University of Beirut (AUB) on Tuesday between Rami Khouri and Michael Young, the former a regular contributor to The Daily Star’s Opinion section and the latter its editor. The debate was sponsored by AUB’s Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR), and entitled, “The Middle East Policies of the Bush and Obama Administrations.”

Khouri and Young agreed in principal on a majority of subjects. The event largely focused on the realities of a post-Saddam Middle East, the persistence of Arab dictatorial regimes and their de facto support by America both militarily and politically, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Basic disagreement, which remained cordial and often unspecific, came in the form of Khouri’s optimism for the future Obama administration’s ability to achieve success in the Middle East, versus Young’s pessimism that the incoming president-elect will lack the means and the leverage to achieve much in the way of progress.

Regarding Iraq, Young’s perspective was that the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Baathist regime in Baghdad was ultimately a positive event, both for Arabs and for the West. He lamented with an equal hand both the extreme failures of the US military and the Bush White House to adequately prepare for the complex realities of post-Saddam Iraq, but also the Arab response to Saddam’s removal from power. On the latter issue, Young insisted that not only did the Arab world prove itself incapable of finding progress and success after Saddam’s ousting, but that its anti-American reaction to the second Iraq war and subsequent Iraqi occupation was both counter-productive and, on the part of “Arab liberals,” unfortunately cynical.

In Iraq, Khouri said, “the totality of the [American] enterprise was a calamity,” but that simultaneously the removal of Saddam’s regime can be counted as an, “American success.” However, Khouri went on to say that “I think the vast majority of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East has been a calamity.”

Khouri and Young disagreed on whether the Bush administration could have achieved more with regard to the Palestinian-Israeli situation, and also whether the future Obama administration would find success in that arena.

As Khouri noted, “American involvement was not evenhanded, and intervening in Palestinian elections on the part of Abbas and Fatah was a huge mistake which led to its marginalization and de-legitimatization.” He was cautiously optimistic that Obama would build positive momentum.

Young, on the other hand, believed that, “by and large the Bush administration has been like any other,” and though he was “not one to blame the victim,” he was under the impression that “no matter how much America involves itself in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and discussions it will not succeed due to the complex dynamics of the parties themselves.”

The Dao that can be experienced is not true;
The world that can be constructed is not true.
The Dao manifests all that happens and may happen;
The world represents all that exists and may exist.
-Dao De Jing