why Obama might just be the man of the hour...

There aren't too many situations where somebody says "this is a job for the President". If it happens, it is usually a political guillotine or it is already a train wreck looking for somebody to take the blame.

One really can't blame the situation in the mideast on him. This has been brewing for many a year, (decade, century, yea even millennium?), and despite the lip service, nothing has been done to mitigate the hate and discontent in the region.

One can point an intellectually curious finger at quite a few reasons, all equally valid or ludicrous, as you see it on that day.

The United States and the Soviet Union have built for themselves a pretty solid reputation as well, owing to involvement in the region. The USSR built its reputation on military involvement, and is (was) well liked by those few that benefitted. The United States built its reputation by trying to be all things to all people at all times and stepping on too many toes, too many times. Its very visibility and size, (similar to the USSR) made it a convenient target for the frustrations of those who needed to stir up some camelshit soup in order to further their own agendas.

Today, we are seeing the last of those that used the USSR to take power come down, (or in a couple of cases, we are seeing the regimes come down, often driven by the sons of those that built them). It had to happen. And where is that omnipresent USA when all this is happening?

Home, minding the stock market.

And who is not stepping on the toes of the people running the rebellions?

Obama.

All the guy is doing is offering some moral support for the people and minding his business.

If this was the Reagan or GW Bush White House you can bet that the Sixth Fleet would be there, in close, with a few handpicked "advisers" on the ground to tell the rebels just how things need to turn out.

Of course, if sufficient heed was not paid to this advice, they would no longer be freedom fighters, they would be forever known as "terrorists".

The face of Obama in the mideast is something the natives have to get used to. It really changes nothing, the US is still committed to and would fight for Israel, (or the Saudi oilfields), in a second, but the lack of the shrill rhetoric and the willingness, (at least on the surface), to let the local population build their own destiny is not what they expect.

And they will respect us for that.

Too much of the time, we think of the mideast as Israel and Iran. Polar opposites and really grotesque theater at that.

I believe that most of that region wants to be camel herders and what have you, juust plain folks, doing what plain folks over there do. They just want to be those things without foreigners around dumping crap on the landscape and barking orders to the local governments.

And the face of Obama is not threatening, it leaves the rest of the world to assume the role of persecutor-in-chief, a role that might even look good on the other power broker in the region, the Ayatollah's of Qom....

just my thoughts on the notion of a silver lining.