You can watch the whole speech here, and I would strongly advise you to do so. There are few soundbites or stirring aphorisms. It's a closely argued, thoughtful and subtle argument for cooperation between the West and the Muslim world. Obama addresses each of the key flashpoints in turn (Iraq, Israel, Iran etc), and in each case stresses the necessity of putting mutual self-interest at the heart of conflict resolution. He neither plays to his domestic audience by loudly asserting America's supremacy, nor attempts to ingratiate himself with his immediate audience by stinting on his passion for the values of his country. Instead, he does his best to make anew an old truth - that, as a poet once said, "We must love one another or die." Or at least listen to one another.
During the run-up to Iraq I remember reading neo-cons in or near the Bush-Cheney White House going on about how the Muslim world didn't respond to flattery or nice talk - they responded to strength. It was all about respect, they said, encouraged by the historian of Islam Tony Soprano Bernard Lewis. As I watched Obama's quoting of the Koran, his use of Arabic, and above all his praising of Islam's historic contributions to Western civilisation - and listened to the delighted applause - I wondered how they had failed to grasp that respect needs to flow both ways.
Comments