NO MATTER WHAT WE DO – AT 7:37 A.M. ET:  I am so sick and tired of hearing about the "Arab street" and "Arab opinion."  There is no such thing as the Arab street, and Arab opinion is a farce.

Public opinion in any country does not automatically blossom forth.  It comes from 1) cultural traditions, which, in the Arab case, are hundreds of years behind modern times; 2) the media, which in most Arab countries is controlled; 3) the educational system, also controlled by the state; and 4) religious institutions, which, in the Arab world, are, at best, problematical.

So this morning's story from Fox about Obama's deteriorating reputation in the Arab world should be looked at with caution.  We have often helped Muslims, and have never received so much as a thank-you.  We helped in Bosnia.  We helped in Lebanon.  Iraq is now a fledgling democracy.  We are trying to save Arab lives in Libya.  We have given billions in foreign aid.  Nothing ever matters.  A decadent civilization remains decadent, and we're supposed to worry about its "street."  Sadly, the hard left in America and elsewhere will side with the decadent elements because it will side with anything anti-American.

We are very critical of Obama at Urgent Agenda, and we hope he will learn a lesson from what's happening today – that nothing will change Muslim opinion of America until Muslim civilization itself changes.  We already are seeing signs that the Egyptian revolution is falling apart, and, despite the fact that we're ready to place blame on Obama for many things, that isn't his fault.  It's Egyptian civilization's fault.

Despite the garbage taught in our chic, lazy, overpriced colleges, not all cultures are equal.  I don't have to accept a culture that treats women as common property.  Neither do you.

From today's Fox story:

Two years ago, President Obama was cheered in the Middle East and around the world as he toured capital cities on a diplomatic mission of reconciliation following an administration defined by two wars.

Last week looked a little different.

Crowds shouted "down with Obama" in Mali, burned him in effigy in Sri Lanka and, in Spain, brought back a slogan once used to attack George W. Bush -- "no more blood for oil."

Obama's decision to enter Libya in hopes of preventing a slaughter at the hands of Muammar al-Qaddafi could, despite its best intentions, accelerate a public-opinion shift in some quarters of the world away from the U.S. president.

That shift has been under way for some time. Though polls showed Obama's popularity soaring as he prepared to deliver his speech to the Muslim world in Egypt in the summer 2009, that affection appeared to have waned by the following year. International polling conducted last summer showed confidence in Obama plummeting in key Muslim countries.

That is not going to change, in our view here, until there are decades of real democracy in the Arab world, a truly free press, and an educational system worthy of the name.  I'm not all that optimistic, not when Western "intellectuals" often side with the most backward elements of Muslim civilization, the better to be chic and with it, and to be invited to the best parties.

We have very tough times ahead in foreign policy, and we have a president entirely inadequate for the job.  If he can't dent the Arab world, with his Muslim middle name and endless groveling, then who can?

March 28, 2011