Michael Goldfarb in The Weekly Standard:
The Post reports that Obama’s address to the Muslim world will be made in Cairo, not Indonesia as was first expected. It’s a shame the President didn’t have the courage to make his speech from the capital of a free and democratic Iraq. Indonesia, too, is a vibrant democracy. But Cairo is the heart of the old Middle East. At least there is a statement here that Obama is siding with the bloc of Arab autocracy against Tehran. But there is little else to redeem this choice of location. It is not bold, it is not new, it will be of a piece with his apologies for America in Turkey and Europe and on Al Arabiya.
And Baghdad would be bold and new? Yeah. As bold and new as the last eight years of foreign policy.
Really, this is so bizarre that it makes me dizzy sorting it all out. Iraq free and democratic? I don’t think so. The Iraqi government — you know, the one the U.S. installed? — is hopelessly corrupt. And how “free” and “democratic” can Iraq be if it’s still occupied by a foreign army that doesn’t respect or observe its own agreements with a supposedly sovereign nation?
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