Extending an Olive Branch

President Obama is in the Middle East this week to deliver a speech he promised to make back during his campaign for the Presidency. In it he promised to go to the Middle East to re-establish cordial relations with the Muslim nations of the Middle East where opinion and ideas toward the United States have been on the decline for some time. Now I'm not politico and I'm certainly no expert on world politics and such but I can certainly speak on my opinion and view on things; after all, this is my blog!

That being said, whether you believe and support his policies or not, Obama's overtures to the nations of the Middle East are something that he should be doing. While the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have continued to rage on, the idea that these were conflicts born out of the need to defend ourselves from potential threats was allowed to transform into a War on Islam. At least that's the way the more radical elements of the Middle East and parts of the world chose to spin it. And believe me, I think more portions of the Middle East get their news from local sources than CNN or the BBC. That being the case, is it any wonder then that much of the world has begun to think that way as well?

There has been sharp criticism of the Obama Administration (as is always the case when the opposition party to the last President's party takes control) and especially of it's actions in the Middle East up until this point. I think these are necessary steps though. If one looks back at history then one will see that in having helped Germany rebuild after the Second World War, the country was able to pick itself up and dust itself off and at least attempt to thrive. The Allied nations didn't go in and simply wipe the place out and then walk off into the sunset. Certainly the end of the Second World War and the start of the Cold War could have been handled differently but what I mean to say is that our former enemies became our allies and we helped one another.

Speaking of enemies turned Allies, what about the former Soviet Union? For decades the enemy in every single action film from the 1980's was either Soviet or communist (which was a way of saying Russia back then without explicitly pointing at the Soviet Union). After decades of near war with them they became our allies. We 'fought' a space race with them and now we are working with them to continue our exploration of space. See what happens when we work with those who were once considered our enemies? I'm not saying that the entire change has been all smiles and roses and I'm not saying that the situation between our nations is completely amicable either but at least we are striving towards a common good.

This is exactly what I see as being necessary for the Middle East. Now perhaps it's naive and perhaps the ultra-Right-wing folks are correct in their assumption that the nation's of the Middle East can't be trusted but then for all their accusations against Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor being racist, are they any different? Just because the people of the Middle East follow a different religion, have a different skin tone or dress differently, does that mean that they shouldn't be dealt with with anything other than a gun? There is a time for violence but there is also a time to ensure that when you do have to go to war, you have support. Perhaps we don't need it since we are the world's remaining Superpower but there's nothing wrong with having friends.