By Steve Hynd
Marc Lynch has some depressing yet predictable news about the fallout from the media's hyping of a fizzled solo wannabe on a plane.
The exultant release of the pent up desire of much of the media for Bush-era posturing has been about as pretty as the Packers defense yesterday. (Sorry.) It was the media -- egged on by right wing critics eager to score political points, but manifestly enthusiastic all on its own -- which took a failed plot and blew it up into a major national crisis. The American media and political frenzy had a real political impact where it matters most -- in the Arab and Muslim audiences whose views of al-Qaeda and America are at stake. The initial Arab response to the attempt was a collective shrug, indifference at yet another failed plot by a marginalized actor. Now, the Arab public seems increasingly fascinated by the story, with more articles and commentary about a resurgent al-Qaeda than in the immediate aftermath, and Arab commentators seem increasingly angered by the Obama administration's reactions. Between them, the American media and political gamesmanship transformed yet another al-Qaeda failure into what it can now claim as a success. They must be very proud.
And there will be more negative consequences from the Obama administration's response to that media pressure too.
Obama's stern declarations that we are at war with al-Qaeda tended to drown out his simultaneous insistence that it would not force the U.S. to compromise its values. Rightly or wrongly, to Arab and Muslim ears this sounded much like the old Bush talk, and the announcement of extra screening for people coming from primarily Muslim countries sounded much like the old Bush deeds. Arab commentators noticed and complained bitterly. Such talk reinforces the increasingly dangerous narrative in the Arab media that Obama is really no different from Bush, and that whatever his intentions he can't deliver real change.
Marc's confident that the administration can turn themselves back around and stop playing domestic politics while ignoring the impact of that gamesmanship on the Muslim world. I'm not as optimistic - the narrative that the Dems are in trouble in 2010 is gaining traction and a lot of people with clout are going to want Obama to keep playing domestic games that then get inflicted upon the world as American national security and foreign policy. Whether the folks in the administration get the "security demands of combatting an adaptive and resilient but small jihadist core and the strategic demands of marginalizing al-Qaeda and reshaping America's relations with the Muslim world" will not enter into the equation as much as Marc would like.
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