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<title><![CDATA[Fouad Ajami - Articles - RealClearPolitics]]></title><link>http://www.RealClearPolicy.com/authors/rss/archive/14638.xml</link><description><![CDATA[Fouad Ajami]]></description><category domain="14638">Author</category><item>
							<title><![CDATA[When the Obama Magic Died]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/11/16/when_the_obama_magic_died_120680.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/11/16/when_the_obama_magic_died_120680.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Sat, 16 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[The current troubles of the Obama presidency can be read back into its beginnings. Rule by personal charisma has met its proper fate. The spell has been broken, and the magician stands exposed. We need no pollsters to tell us of the loss of faith in Mr. Obama's policies&mdash;and, more...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Iran Finally Checkmates Obama]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/09/24/iran_finally_checkmates_obama_120068.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/09/24/iran_finally_checkmates_obama_120068.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Tue, 24 Sep 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[&ldquo;Down is up and up is down. I feel like we have passed through the looking glass and are looking back at a backwards world,&rdquo; a military historian of the modern Middle East wrote in a recent note to me about the hectic diplomacy over Syria and Iran. &ldquo;Where did all the...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Destroy Assad's Regime, or Hold Your Fire]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/08/30/destroy_assads_regime_or_hold_your_fire_119777.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/08/30/destroy_assads_regime_or_hold_your_fire_119777.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Fri, 30 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[Syria is the moral and strategic test that U.S. President Barack Obama neither sought nor wanted. He had done his best to avert his gaze from its horrors. He, the self-styled orator, had said very little about the grief of Syria and the pain of its children. When he spoke of Syria, it...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Excising the 'Cancer' in Egypt]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/08/21/excising_the_cancer_in_egypt_119667.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/08/21/excising_the_cancer_in_egypt_119667.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[The knives -- or more properly the scalpels -- are drawn in the Egyptian public square. The liberal forums and the state media are suddenly filled with discussions of illness, with the workings of cancer, with the way diseased cells spread unless &ldquo;excised&rdquo; and the tumors...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[The Great Schism]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/08/07/the_great_schism_119530.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/08/07/the_great_schism_119530.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Wed, 07 Aug 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[Grant Egypt its redeeming consolations: it is neither Algeria, nor Syria.  The terror that came to Algeria in the 1990s, a scorched earth war between Le Pouvoir (The Power Structure) and the Islamists which took a toll of no less than 200,000 lives is unlikely to be visited on Egypt.  It...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[John Kerry Fights the Wrong War]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/07/30/john_kerry_fights_the_wrong_war_119425.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/07/30/john_kerry_fights_the_wrong_war_119425.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Tue, 30 Jul 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[A time comes in the course of deadly upheavals when the world wearies of the slaughter and the bloodshed turns routine.
Words lose their shock value, and all that matters will have been said. Bashar al-Assad had bet it would unfold that way; from the beginning of this struggle, he warned...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[For Egypt's Liberals, Noise Doesn't Equal Power]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/28/for_egypts_liberals_noise_doesnt_equal_power_119022.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/28/for_egypts_liberals_noise_doesnt_equal_power_119022.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Fri, 28 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[On the face of it, the winds should have been favorable for Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi.
After kings and military dictators, he was Egypt&rsquo;s first democratically elected president. He prevailed at the polls a year ago by a very narrow margin, with almost 52 percent of the vote...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Turkey Between Ataturk and Erdogan]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/25/turkey_between_ataturk_and_erdogan_118962.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/25/turkey_between_ataturk_and_erdogan_118962.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[Istanbul &ndash; I write before my scheduled departure from this bewitching and overwhelming city. It is morning, the sky is brilliant blue, the color of the waters of the Golden Horn. The famed postcard silhouette&mdash;Hagia Sophia, Sultanahmet, the Suleymaniye Mosque&mdash;makes it...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Hating the West and Reaping Its Privileges]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/30/hating_the_west_and_reaping_its_privileges_118602.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/30/hating_the_west_and_reaping_its_privileges_118602.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Thu, 30 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[&ldquo;We swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone: We must fight them as they fight us, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.&rdquo;
This was Michael Adebolajo, age 28, born in the U.K. to a devoted Christian family of Nigerian...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[What is Hezbollah?]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/24/what_is_hezbollah_118547.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/24/what_is_hezbollah_118547.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[The controversy begins with the name Hezb Allah, Arabic for the Party of God. And the controversy is further deepened by what is implied by the name: the others, the ones who don&rsquo;t belong to the movement of fire and brimstone, are Hezb al-Shaytan, the Party of Satan.
In the...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Turkey's Stubborn Erdogan Is Undone by Obama, Assad]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/15/turkeys_stubborn_erdogan_is_undone_by_obama_assad_118425.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/15/turkeys_stubborn_erdogan_is_undone_by_obama_assad_118425.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[The car bombs that killed more than 40 people last weekend in a town in southern Turkey are a reckoning for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He had made himself party to the fight over Syria and vowed that he would see the end of Bashar al-Assad&rsquo;s rule. But Assad has hunkered...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[You Can't Buy a Warlord, You Can Only Rent Him]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/03/afghanistans_corruption_and_americas_too_118251.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/03/afghanistans_corruption_and_americas_too_118251.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[In the unforgiving Afghan landscape, we have learned that you can&rsquo;t buy a warlord. You can only rent one. We owe this education to our man in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai.
For more than a decade, it has been recently confirmed, U.S. dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Children of the Fault Lines]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/04/22/children_of_the_fault_lines_118066.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/04/22/children_of_the_fault_lines_118066.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[The world, in all its tangled webs, will be read into the Boston bombing suspects.
For some, the Tsarnaev brothers are Chechen avengers, young men seared by the long war in Russia&rsquo;s &ldquo;southern backyard.&rdquo; For Vladimir Putin and his regime, this deed of terror in an...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Boston's Terror &amp; Children of the Fault Lines]]></title>
							<link>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-19/boston-s-terror-and-the-children-of-the-fault-lines.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-19/boston-s-terror-and-the-children-of-the-fault-lines.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[The world, in all its tangled webs, will be read into the Boston bombing suspects.For some, the Tsarnaev brothers are Chechen avengers, young men seared by the long war in Russia&rsquo;s &ldquo;southern backyard.&rdquo; For Vladimir Putin and his regime, this deed of terror in an...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[U.S. Caution and Arab Restraint Mark a New Terror Era]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/04/19/us_caution_and_arab_restraint_mark_a_new_terror_era_118033.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/04/19/us_caution_and_arab_restraint_mark_a_new_terror_era_118033.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[People learn from catastrophes. Amid the grief and speculation over the Boston bombings, two things stand out to me: a refusal to rush to judgment in the U.S. commentary and the absence of schadenfreude in the Arab media.
There was the early report that a young Saudi student had been on...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[How Obama Is Failing Syria]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/29/how_obama_is_failing_syria_117713.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/29/how_obama_is_failing_syria_117713.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[In the matter of the Syrian rebellion, the U.S. hasn&rsquo;t even &ldquo;led from behind.&rdquo; The Obama administration has pioneered a new role for a great power: We are now the traffic controllers, directing the flow of weapons to the rebels.
The money isn&rsquo;t ours; it is Qatari...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[The Banality of Evil]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/21/the_banality_of_evil_117580.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/21/the_banality_of_evil_117580.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[What has become of the perpetrators of murder and genocide in Cambodia, Iraq, and other war-torn regions of the world? 
Great evil never rises to the occasion. We have expectations of it that are never met. The philosopher Hannah Arendt gave us that singular lesson in her extraordinary...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Ten Years Ago, an Honorable War Began With Wide Support]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/20/ten_years_ago_an_honorable_war_began_with_wide_support_117558.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/20/ten_years_ago_an_honorable_war_began_with_wide_support_117558.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[Nowadays, few people step forth to speak well of the Iraq War, to own up to the support they gave that American campaign in the Arab world. Yet Operation Iraqi Freedom, launched 10 years ago this week, was once a popular war. We had struck into Afghanistan in 2001 to rout al Qaeda and...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Barack Obama, a Parochial Leader for a Parochial Nation]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/05/barack_obama_a_parochial_leader_for_a_parochial_nation_117286.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/05/barack_obama_a_parochial_leader_for_a_parochial_nation_117286.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[It wasn&rsquo;t Barack Obama&rsquo;s doing -- at least not fully. The crowds in Paris and Berlin, and the Muslims in Cairo and Karachi, eager to be done with President George W. Bush, took the new standard-bearer of American power as one of their own, a cosmopolitan man keen to break...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[John Kerry's Syrian Second Chance]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/01/john_kerrys_syrian_second_chance_117238.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/01/john_kerrys_syrian_second_chance_117238.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[As the war that has degraded and all but partitioned Syria enters its third year, the amorphous coalition known as the Friends of Syria continues to hover just off-stage. The Western democracies, moderate Arab governments and international organizations that constitute the coalition are...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Romney Not Out to Make the World Swoon]]></title>
							<link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romney-isnt-out-to-make-the-world-swoon/2012/07/27/gJQAEDFIEX_story.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romney-isnt-out-to-make-the-world-swoon/2012/07/27/gJQAEDFIEX_story.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[The itinerary for the overseas trip that Mitt Romney is taking &mdash; Britain, Poland and Israel &mdash; is brilliantly chosen. These countries contrast greatly with candidate Barack Obama&rsquo;s 2008 foreign tour, which included stops in Afghanistan and Jordan. That journey aimed to...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Barack Obama the Pessimist]]></title>
							<link>http://www.realclearworld.com/</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.realclearworld.com/]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[In one of the illuminating, unscripted moments of the 2008  presidential campaign, Barack Obama said&#194;&#151;much to the dismay of his core  constituency&#194;&#151;that the Reagan presidency had been "transformational" in a  way that Bill Clinton's hadn't. Needless to say, Mr. Obama aspired to a ...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[The U.S. Must Stay in Iraq]]></title>
							<link>http://www.tnr.com/article/world/89367/iraq-war-secretary-defense-gates-baghdad-obama-troops-democracy</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://www.tnr.com/article/world/89367/iraq-war-secretary-defense-gates-baghdad-obama-troops-democracy]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[The U.S. war in Iraq has just been given an unexpected seal of approval. Defense Secretary Robert Gates,  in what he billed as his &ldquo;last major policy speech in Washington,&rdquo; has  owned up to the gains in Iraq, to the surprise that Iraq has emerged as  &ldquo;the most advanced...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Rebellion in the Land of the Pharaohs]]></title>
							<link>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703956604576110131980631472.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703956604576110131980631472.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA['When Ramses II was over eighty he celebrated his rejuvenation at the feast of Set, repeating it yearly until he was ninety and more, and displaying his power of rejuvenation to the Gods above in the Obelisks he regularly erected as a memorial, which the aged Pharaoh decorated with...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Karzai and the Scent of U.S. Irresolution]]></title>
							<link>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303341904575576342977166312.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303341904575576342977166312.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA['They do give us bags of money&mdash;yes, yes, it is done, we are grateful to the Iranians for this." This is the East, and baksheesh is the way of the world, Hamid Karzai brazenly let it be known this week. The big aid that maintains his regime, and keeps his country together, comes...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[The Obsolescence of Barack Obama]]></title>
							<link>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164904575421363005578460.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164904575421363005578460.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[Not long ago Barack Obama, for those who were spellbound by him, had the stylishness of JFK and the historic mission of FDR riding to the nation's rescue. Now it is to Lyndon B. Johnson's unhappy presidency that Democratic strategist Robert Shrum compares the stewardship of Mr. Obama....]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Islam's Nowhere Men]]></title>
							<link>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703338004575230142684329162.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703338004575230142684329162.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Mon, 10 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA['A Muslim has no nationality except his belief," the intellectual godfather of the Islamists, Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, wrote decades ago. Qutb's "children" are everywhere now; they carry the nationalities of foreign lands and plot against them. The Pakistani born Faisal Shahzad is a devotee...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Obama's Magic Looks More Like Hubris]]></title>
							<link>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094304575029110104772360.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094304575029110104772360.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[The curtain has come down on what can best be described as a brief un-American moment in our history. That moment began in the fall of 2008, with the great financial panic, and gave rise to the Barack Obama phenomenon. The nation's faith in institutions and time-honored ways had cracked....]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[No Despot Fears the President]]></title>
							<link>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704152804574628134281062714.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704152804574628134281062714.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA[With year one drawing to a close, the truth of the Obama presidency is laid bare: retrenchment abroad, and redistribution and the intrusive regulatory state at home. This is the genuine calling of Barack Obama, and of the "progressives" holding him to account. The false dichotomy has...]]></description>
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							<title><![CDATA[Arabs Have Stopped Applauding Obama]]></title>
							<link>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574558300500152682.html</link>
							<guid><![CDATA[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574558300500152682.html]]></guid>							
							<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
							<author>Fouad Ajami</author>
							<description><![CDATA['He talks too much," a Saudi academic in Jeddah, who had once been smitten with Barack Obama, recently observed to me of America's 44th president. He has wearied of Mr. Obama and now does not bother with the Obama oratory.He is hardly alone, this academic. In the endless chatter of this...]]></description>
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