Arab anger is about more than a film ... it's about a hatred of America

Sunday 16 September 2012

IT took only a matter of minutes for Taliban insurgents to storm seemingly impregnable Camp Bastion in Afghanistan's Helmand province in the small hours of yesterday morning.

A protester in Cairo

Custom byline text:

ANALYSIS BY DIPLOMATIC EDITOR TREVOR ROYLE

During the subsequent fire fight several aircraft were damaged and two US marines were killed, but the collateral damage is much more serious. Camp Bastion is home to Britain's Prince Harry (Captain Wales), and by mounting such a brazen attack the Taliban have given further notice that no-one is safe from their avenging instincts.

Coming at the end of a week that has seen similar assaults on Western embassies in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Sudan, the West must now recognise that its policies in the Arab world are continuing to give offence and the fires of extremism have not been dampened by last year's Arab Spring, with its hopes of introducing Western- style democracy.The attacks began last Tuesday when Muslim demonstrators stormed the US consulate in Benghazi, killing the highly-respected US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Two days later in Yemen and Egypt angry crowds, mainly of conservative Muslims, attempted to do the same thing to US embassies in Sana'a and Cairo. Friday brought similar protests across the Muslim world, with the US embassy in Tunis set alight and the British and German embassies attacked in Khartoum. This has been a worrying week for President Barack Obama, who has attempted to create a new beginning in his dealings with the Arab world. From being the country that summarily unseated dictators such as Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Obama wanted the US to be regarded as a facilitator of change and a champion of moderation. While the flashpoint for last week's violence was a cheap-shot movie that ridiculed the Islamic faith and prompted widespread anger, there was more to the demonstrations than a simple desire to burn US flags. People who vent their feelings in the streets do not normally carry rocket-propelled grenade launchers – even in the Middle East. It was noticeable that the bulk of those calling for blood were hard-line Muslims, many of them Salafists or members of the Muslim Brotherhood who have no love for the West. Under the previous regimes they were kept in their place and demonstrations were quickly crushed, but having won the freedom to make their voices heard they are doing so noisily and violently. That was not what Obama wanted to see when he mooted his new philosophy, and while there are plenty of moderates in the Arab world who have responded positively to his message, there are also plenty of hotheads who have taken the opportunity to spout anti-American bile. With a presidential election looming for Obama, this is both a danger and a challenge. Having staked his Middle East policy on the hand of friendship, he finds it being bitten by the extremists.So far, Obama has done well to keep the US out of any fresh embroilment in the affairs of the Middle East. No US hands were dirtied in Libya during the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi, Syria has been left to its own devices and in Egypt a long-standing US ally Hosni Mubarak was unseated without a murmur from the State Department. All of this was very satisfactory in the US, where there was no support for further adventures in the region, but now this may come at a price.The murder of Chris Stevens was an outrage – the US does not take kindly to seeing its ambassadors hounded to death – and there is a danger that Obama's softly-softly approach in the Arab world could be seen as a compromise too far. Showing commendable grace, his challenger Mitt Romney has not made any political capital out of the killings, but it would not be unusual if he changed tack and called for strong US leadership in the region. There was a hint that he might do just that when last week he said "sometimes it seems that we're at the mercy of events instead of shaping events". So far, international affairs have not really impinged on the presidential debates, but any further upsurge of Islamic violence aimed at the US could change that.

Contextual targeting label:

Block list

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Arab anger is about more than a film ... it's about a hatred of America

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED