The first article I choose to blog about this week for English 1520 at Oakland Community College Winter 2010 semester was written by Hady Amr. According to Wikipedia, policy analyzing and U.S to Muslim world relations authoring are a few important particulars to note about Amr, predominantly his focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Lebanon, Jordan, and economic/social development in the Arab World. Besides serving in Bill Clinton’s administration and fellowship at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Amr, a Lebanese-American is the founder and director of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hady_Amr).
The central themes in Amr’s article revolve around derivations from a story told to him by a former co-worker friend whose family also emigrated from the Middle East. His derived argument is America’s global wane, as themed by chapter 16 of our English book (title: Is America Over?). His former coworker’s story took place in Northwest Pakistan where her brother, Imran, was abducted and apparently never seen again. When he stated that he would happily to do anything he could to influence U.S. governmental assistance in her debacle she considered the offer but, in the end, ultimately rejected U.S. assistance - an unquestionable, clear-cut example of the decline of United States global effectiveness, and reception, according to Amr.
Apparently, despite the fact that the U.S. has spent more than $10 billion dollars to aide Pakistan since September 11th (They Say I Say p.460), the results have been mediocre and further U.S. intervention would not be wanted, welcomed, or prove any more successful than her own methods of dealing with “criminals, terrorists, or both” (They Say I Say p.461) in attempted negotiations to free her brother. Amr continues his argument by saying basically that its America’s own fault for this currently held popular U.S. view and, furthermore, that we have only ourselves to blame. But why is this, Amr says voting to war in Iraq on flimsy grounds doesn’t help and that America’s negligence towards other world issues as of late, i.e. the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, entrap America and further paint poor pictures of our compassion as a nation.
Amr concludes by contending that something has to revolutionize in America in order for vibrancies to return to a glory that past U.S. governments existed in and were revered for. As a direct quote then, in 1967, the year in which Hady Amr was born, ”… America was admired across the Muslim world as the shining light on the hill, breathing hope for a positive future…” but that today, “… we are loathed and distrusted by huge majorities” … “from sea to shining sea” (They Say I Say p. 462).
Randy Johnson
Eng 1520 (Sat) 12-2:55pm
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