Just a week before the United States declares the end of combat operations in Iraq, the war-torn country witnessed one of its broadest attacks on security forces as insurgents set off a wave of car bombs and roadside mines across 13 towns and cities.
It’s no surprise, then, that the place of the United States is necessarily complex and fraught for the Arab world. One only has to look toward the journalists and politicians in the Gulf region to see how this conflict manifests not only as it relates to warring countries such as Iraq, Israel, and Palestine, but also as it plays out in personal confusion and even bewilderment in its own people.
Take, for example, Saad bin Tefla: the ultimate embodiment of confusion in the troubled Gulf. Saad bin Tefla (also cited widely as Saad al-Ajmi and Saad bin Tiflah, among other name variants) is a Kuwaiti freelance journalist and columnist who writes for various Gulf newspapers. However, the often-cited Saad bin Tefla fashions himself as a seasoned politician after serving a one-year stint as Kuwait’s Minister of Information and Culture more than a decade ago, from 1999 to 2000. His contribution to the Kuwait parliament was that he resigned dramatically and fled the country during one of his country’s most troubled parliamentary moments.
In a November 7, 2001 article published in Dow Jones International News, Saad bin Tefla warned that the growing "culture of terrorism" was isolating Kuwait from its much-needed Western allies and friends. "Kuwaitis owe the U.S. their freedom from Iraqi invaders a decade ago," he said.
But nine years later, Saad bin Tefla changed his tune about his gratitude toward the U.S., and began publishing countless articles against America and President Barack Obama in particular. Only a year after being elected, Saad bin Tefla referenced President Obama as "still not a highly seasoned politician" for not having kept his promise to bring peace to the Middle East. This statement is particularly worrying, not only because of its glaring naivety/falsity but also because it is coming from an alleged academic and a journalist with a one-year stint as Kuwait’s Minister of Information and Culture who abandoned his own post and still refers to himself as a politician.
President Obama is globally recognized as a man of acute intelligence and a scholar by his opponents as well as his supporters. The President is astoundingly careful with the words he uses as well as the words he omits. However, the United States’ historically relentless alliance with Israel and President Obama’s "promise" to implement a peaceful settlement between Israel and Palestine just before he was elected President never held much weight in the global community given the daily U.S.-based actions against Palestine in the occupied territories, not to mention that little war going on in Afghanistan.
There are many important things to write about concerning the disastrous course of American policy in the Middle East and President Obama’s troubling alliance with Israel. But in order to gain momentum toward eradicating escalating violence in the Gulf, we have to be able to rely on journalists and "politicians" in that region to help accurately inform the public and Middle East governments of better solutions rather than reverting to name-calling tactics and abandoning troubled parliaments, as is the case with Saad Bin Tefla, critic of everyone, loyal to none. Enough with Saad Bin Tefla. It’s time to listen to someone else.