Shocking Hostility from the Arab World

The report released yesterday that found that the Arab world hates the US was nothing short of… absolutely obvious. I would have been happy to tell the State Department months ago that “Hostility toward America has reached shocking levels,” and that “what is required is not merely tactical adaptation but strategic, and radical, transformation.” Plus, I’m sure I would have been a bargain compared to the funding that the panel of experts required.

However, I probably would not have come up with this priceless line, from the panel’s chair (as quoted in the Guardian): “You know, Woody Allen said 90% of life is just showing up,” said Edward P Djerejian, an Arab specialist, former ambassador and White House spokesman, who led the group. “In the Arab world, the US just doesn’t show up.”

“And when the US does show up,” he could have added, “they shoot.”

Kash