Waste of Time Diplomacy in the Middle East

Obama is going off to Cairo on Thursday, for a highly anticipated speech to the Islamic world. He'll try to make a big impression on the Arabs to stop hating the US:

He has his job cut out for him:

Al-Zawahri urged Egyptians to reject Obama when he makes his speech, calling him "that criminal who came seeking, with deception, to obtain what he failed to achieve in the field after the mujahideen ruined the project of the crusader America in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia."

He said Obama's decision to come to Cairo showed the U.S. had not given up its alliances with dictatorial and corrupt Mideast governments.

"It is a clear message that America does not stand with reform and change and other lying American propaganda, but it stands with the continuation of the existing tyrannical, rotten regimes," said al-Zawahri.

Meanwhile a United States Poll: Few Americans have favorable view of Muslim world

That view compares with 46 percent of the people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey who say they have an unfavorable opinion of Muslim countries. That's up 5 percentage points from 2002, when 41 percent indicated that they had an unfavorable view.

Meanwhile, three in 10 say they have a neutral opinion of Muslim countries.

The poll also suggests that most Americans suspect people in Muslim countries don't think highly of the United States. Nearly eight in 10 questioned say people in Muslim countries have a unfavorable opinion of the United States, with 14 percent saying Muslims hold a favorable view.

But the poll indicates Americans seem to be split on whether such negative opinions by Muslims matter. Fifty-three percent of those questioned say they think Muslim views of the United States matter greatly or moderately, with 47 percent saying that Muslim opinions of the United States don't matter very much or at all.

More and more I'm becoming a isolationist when it comes to the Middle East. Too much trouble, and the American public increasingly don't want to get involved.

Can you see Afghanistan and Iraq becoming full functioning democracies? Allies? Where western tourists visit on holidays? No way. So why are we there? If it's because of oil, we sure have wasted precious lives and lots of money on something we still buy at market price. Maybe if the damn stuff were cheaper....