The "Arab Spring" Does Not Exist

Anyone, myself included, who ever believed in the “Arab Spring” got a quick eye opener from this new poll:

The United States is viewed less favorably in much of the Arab world today than it was during the final year of the Bush administration, and President Obama is less popular in the region than Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to a poll released today by the Arab American Institute, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group.

Attitudes towards the US president and the United States as a whole have been growing increasingly negative over the past ten years due to the invasion of Iraq, outrage over Guantanamo Bay, and continued frustration over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which has been tracking attitudes for a decade.

But the current poll is striking in that is illustrates how far Obama’s favorability has fallen in the region, after an initial optimistic spike when he took office.

“It’s because expectations were created that were not met,” Zogby said.

Oh, baloney! It’s because Arab culture is really fouled up. They can’t achieve even the semblance of democracy by themselves and it’s all America’s fault, according to reactionaries like Zogby. Actually, Zogby himself is part of the problem because he can’t comprehend or face the elementary: If you can’t fix yourself, no one else can help you. America has done next to nothing to the Arab world. The Arab world has done everything to itself. I am no fan of Barack Obama, but that Arabs prefer Ahmadinejad to him is not Obama’s fault. It’s mental illness.