Hawks should cut Obama some slack

The right-wing knives are out, led, of course, by the hatchet-wielding Fox News. Criticism of the new American president is at times loud and, at others, insidious.

For many dyed-in-the-wool Republicans, ex-Bush administration officials, neoconservatives and other New American Century ideologues, President Barack Obama can do no right.

When they are not banging on about how he is in the process of impoverishing their grandchildren with his efforts to boost an economy that he had nothing to do with destroying, they accuse him of jeopardising America's security.

How can our president consider releasing Guantanamo 'terrorists' on our soil, they shriek - when everyone now knows that most detainees were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

On his unwillingness to continue using torture, they invariably allude to the concocted dirty bomb in New York scenario and ask why the intelligence services wouldn't torture someone if they knew it could save the lives of thousands, oblivious to Obama's argument that torture is ineffective and erodes American values.

They've been scathing of certain members of his team, including former ambassador to Saudi Arabia Charles Freeman, tapped to become head of the National Intelligence Council before he was character-assassinated by the pro-Israel lobby.

They accuse Obama of denigrating his office by appearing on popular television chat shows and, naturally, they have a field day when he slips up like he did on The Tonight Show, when he described his bowling score as "like the Special Olympics".

The hosts of Fox's Fox & Friends programme, who were oh-so reverent towards George W. Bush and dear Laura, unsurprisingly turned their ire on Michelle Obama the other morning. She forgot to curtsy to the queen and dared to touch the monarch, they said, adding that British newspapers had been outraged. "Don't they get advice on protocol before they travel abroad?" asked one, with feigned horror.

Well, I browse through most of those newspapers daily and the overwhelming sentiment of all, including the Royal family-adoring Daily Telegraph, was one of mild amusement, and it was invariably pointed out that the queen took an immediate liking to America's first lady and placed her arm around Michelle first.

In fact, the UK and the European media were charmed by the president's warm and intelligent wife. Yet all Fox News can do is nit-pick, instead of being proud of their country's stylish ambassador. Conservative talk show host Tammy Bruce went a step further, stating: "We've got trash in the White House".

Fox & Friends really went for Obama's jugular over his Town Hall speech in Strasbourg, intended to reach out to Europeans following eight chilly years. The president's message was clear: The US may have been guilty of arrogance in the past towards its allies, but his is a listening America that wants to be an equal partner with Europe.

He also called upon Europeans to stem anti-Americanism and work to understand so much that is positive about his country. This is exactly what European leaders and their respective publics needed to hear.

Unfortunately, it was the last thing Fox anchors wanted to hear. If he must call the American people arrogant, they said, he should have done it at home instead of abroad. Talk about doing the twist! They've even taken to replaying over and over the infamous video of Obama's former preacher saying "God damn America". Been there, done that, someone should send them the T-shirt.

Obama made it crystal-clear that he was referring to the Bush administration's arrogance, but Fox was determined to skew his message with a ridiculous interpretation, even rolling out failed Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and asking him disingenuously whether Obama meant the American people were guilty of arrogance.

Later, the awful Sean Hannity accused Obama of attacking America and truncated the speech so that the criticisms of Europe were conveniently left out.

He's no doubt upset that Obama hasn't invaded anywhere yet. Bill O'Reilly, on the other hand, came down with 'fair and balanced' disease for the first time in his life, actually managing to find good things in Obama's words.

Perhaps my regular readers are wondering whether I've been out in the sun too long. I don't usually devote column inches to defending the US leader, but I strongly believe that most of the attacks on Obama are unfounded and unfair.

Obama has inherited an absolute mess on every front and he's only been in office for two-and-a-half months, yet there are some who expect him to produce a magic wand. In reality, he's already worked miracles.

He's gone a long way to mend fences not only with Europe, but also with Russia and China. He's making efforts towards a nuclear-free world and he's holding out an olive branch to Iran. We've yet to fully understand Obama's Middle East strategy, mainly because Israel's new Benjamin Netanyahu-led government has only just been formed.

He's far from perfect, but compared to Bush he's a veritable angelic vision.

If there's one serious complaint I have it is when on earth is Obama going to put us out of our misery and get the darn dog?

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com Some comments may be considered for publication.