Rove on Obama 16, March 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.Tags: Bush, Karl Rove, Obama, Rove, Rove on Obama, Rove quote, US Israel spat
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Say what you will about Karl Rove but the man’s clearly got a sense of humor. I don’t mean this in a mean, quasi-facetious way either. Just look at this latest quote about Obama’s handling of the recent US-Israeli spat. Clearly, he’s just saying this to wind up the Left to epic levels and to have them choke on their Tofu-Bran Flakes over the morning paper.
I think this is part of a broader problem with the Obama administration. … We saw it in Honduras. Where rather than monitoring the situation, they let a cowboy president try to act in an extra-constitutional way to violate a fundamental principle in the Constitution, all without having done their homework in advance.
Ben Affleck defends Arabs 11, March 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations.Tags: Arabs, Arabs in US media, Ben Afflack defends Arabs, Ben Affleck, John McCain, Obama, US media
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Keep the automatic Said-inspired sneer at bay until you’ve watched the clip. Ben Affleck can’t be blamed for the title of the video and, indeed, makes a good point (though it is, of course, bordering on tragic that it needs to be made in the first place).
Some woman: “Obama is an Arab”
John McCain: “No he’s not. He’s a good guy”
Patriot and Aegis in Gulf to pressure Iran 22, February 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations, Iran, The Gulf.Tags: Aegis Cruisers, Iran threat, missile defence, Obama, Patriot facts, Patriot Missile System
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UPI reports that the Obama Administration has accelerated the deployment of anti-missile defenses to friendly Gulf States to counter the Iranian missile threat. Patriot Systems and Aegis Cruisers are the key plinths of this deployment, though General Petraeus did not specifically name the countries that hosted the Patriot Systems. This is somewhat curious as the Guardian reported at the end of January that the Patriot System would be installed in Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain, with Kuwait and KSA having their existing systems upgraded. The widespread leaking of this move is seen as a mechanism to heap pressure on Iran.
Patriot Missile Facts
– Production began in 1980
– Currently at least 17 countries operate the system
– In the first Gulf War their success rate was 70% in KSA and 40% in Israel
– Each missile can weigh up to 1000kg, has a range of 100 miles, is more than 6m long, costs around $9 million and carries 90kg of explosives
– It automatically finds its target by radar
Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize: ridiculous 9, October 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations.Tags: Nobel Peace Prize, Obama, Obama award, Obama nobel, undeserving award
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Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What were they thinking? Obama would surely agree that he has done nothing whatsoever to deserve this prize. Plenty of fine words about nuclear weapons, the fractious US-Russian relationship and a nice speech in Cairo ought not a successful Nobel Peace Prize winner make. Action, surely, ought to be its hallmark. Indeed in this department Obama is sorely lacking, even going backwards from his Cairo speech.
The award of this prize appears to be a somewhat pathetic attempt by Norway, or rather some crazy committee there, to curry favor with America in the most craven and stupid manner. Not only will Obama be embarrassed by this award but he will be pilloried throughout the world to say nothing of the American right wing’s apoplectic reaction to this.
This is truly a foolhardy award which risks tarnishing the reputation of a noble institution for a long time to come.
Britain as old Great Satan 25, June 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Iran.Tags: Ahmadinejad, Britain, Empire, Great Satan, Iran, Iran elections, Obama
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Just a quick thought on my earlier article on Britain as the New Great Satan. I’ve spoken to a few people about this and had some interesting comments. I am well aware, though my title might have belied that, that Britain and Iran’s relationship goes back some distance and that Iran has a long, seething and passionate hatred for the UK. I’ve spent most of this year reading about the 17th, 18th and 19th century history of the Gulf and Britain’s involvement along with many other powers.
Whilst I do agree with some the sentiment of David’s comment that ‘Britain has ALWAYS been enemy number one in Iran’ I do feel that recently, at least, the empirical evidence disagrees. It is not Britain’s name that Iranian’s have been castigating as the Great Satan for the last thirty years in Friday prayers. It seems to me, moreover, that Britain as the arch-enemy is a straw-man, which has a nice, familiar and potent resonance in Iranian history. I don’t think for one second that Ahmadinajad et al really believe the the UK has been up to anything particularly nefarious in Iran. But that with America being so manifestly popular at the moment and a chance of detente potentially around the corner, they need to go to their back-up enemy, the British.
Ali Ansari from St. Andrews has a peice in the Times of London discussing briefly the background of the Iranian-British relationship. Also, David points to a fascinating article in Prospect Magazine. I think that this article must be taken, however, with a pinch of salt. The author is selling his book, after all, which – as luck would have it – takes something of a controversial tone repletajade with ornate, verbose language and somewhat clumsy ‘I was there reporting’.
Article catch up 27, May 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Egypt, French IR, Saudi Arabia, The Emirates.Tags: Abu Dhabi torture, GCC monetary union, Obama, Sarkozy, Saudi, Shia politics
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– Reuters have an interesting article about Saudi’s dealings with their Shia minority. The most interesting sentence is in the middle:
Saudi King Abdullah removed the governor of the Najran region last year after the Ismaili Shi’ites, a majority in the area, complained about efforts to settle Sunni Yemenis and give them housing and jobs in an effort to marginalise them further.
– The Independent on Sarkozy’s recent trip to the Gulf. It is a neat summary, though quite how it fails to mention the recent case Abu Dhabi torture case (here and here) or their nuclear ambitions is beyond me.
The presence in Abu Dhabi is seen by President Sarkozy as part of a radical shift of French foreign and security policy away from the independent or “multi-polar” approach taken by the former President, Jacques Chirac. Together with the decision to rejoin the military structures of Nato, the Gulf base is intended as a move towards the “Anglo-Saxon” way of looking at the world. At the same time, both moves are intended to give France a greater stake in Western decision-making.
– It appears as if Obama will be speaking at Cairo University and not at the Al Azhar as some had hoped.
– The extraordinarily optimistic Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Abdulrahman Al-Attiyah is still hopeful that the Gulf monetary Union will go ahead, despite the UAE pulling out of the deal this past week. I am not that sure how, exactly, the Emirates could have made their wishes any clearer…
Iranian Facebook & YouTube: open for business 18, March 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Iran.Tags: elections, Facebook, Iran, Iranian elections, Obama, Radio Free Europe, Tehran, You Tube
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Iranian authorities have released their blocks on Facebook and YouTube. This is quite a move forwards for the repressive regime in Tehran. Is this some kind of concession of sorts towards Obama’s recent more gentile rhetoric? Is this finally the vanguard of new media-savvy technology being embraced by the regime, after admitting defeat a la King Canute? It seems not. In an excellent article for Radio Free Europe, Golnaz Esfandiari suggests that it is in fact the Iranian authorities taking advantage of these media with one eye firmly on the upcoming June elections. In short, it is a way to contribute to roping in the youth vote. Time will tell…after a facebook status update has told us, that is.
Hat tip: Andrew Bishop. Much obliged.
If the world could vote: Obama or McCain 28, October 2008
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Random.Tags: McCain, Obama, US election, vote, world vote
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Here is a link to a fantastic interactive map over at Foreign Policy which shows how the rest of the world would vote in the US elections if they could. It’s got to be said that it doesn’t look so good for McCain…
A couple more quotes… 7, October 2008
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Random.Tags: McCain, Obama, Quotes
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A few more good ones from the same Times article.
There are neighbourhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through today.
John McCain visits a market in the Iraqi capital in April 2007, during which he was flanked by 22 soldiers, ten armoured Humvees, and two Apache attack helicopters
Why was there a banner that said “Mission Accomplished” on the aircraft carrier? I have said for a long time that reconstruction of Iraq would be a long, long, difficult process, but the conflict, the major conflict, is over, the regime change has been accomplished, and it’s very appropriate.
McCain on Fox News, June 2003
ran, Cuba, Venezuela – these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.
Barack Obama, campaign rally, Oregon, May 18, 2008
Let me be absolutely clear: Iran is a grave threat.
Obama, campaign rally, Montana, May 19, 2008
I think it’s time for us to end the embargo with Cuba… [It] has failed to provide the sorts of rising standards of living and has squeezed the innocents in Cuba, and utterly failed in the effort to overthrow Castro… it’s time for us to acknowledge that that particular policy has failed.
Obama, to a university audience, Illinois, January 2004
As president, I’ll maintain the embargo – it’s an important inducement for change.
Obama, to a Cuban-American audience, Miami, August 2007
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