Lund Critical Debate - Bassam Haddad & Dennis Ross - American Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Typical example of "I blame everything on America"
and virtually no self-criticism or constructive response aside from "gonna change America".
Lot's of false politeness and PC,
but the issue is much more simple - it's the rhythm of power change.
The main problem with the US middle eastern policy, before even getting into specifics,
is that it can be changed with every election 4-8 years. And even if there's a constant trend,
each administration comes and goes, and even if it had the best policy there isn't time or guarantee long-term. We see one of the aspects of this in the current situation.
Change occurs in different intervals in the west and in the east.
How can kings and emir's really get on board when they know an Obama can come
and try reshape the trajectories every 4-8 years?
This is never brought up, because it sounds un-democratic,
but would be actually a good point to be made in favor of the Arab world.