Mouth-Off: "Obama FTW" and "Go Obama" Don't Specifically Apply to Us, Arabs

Okay, I'm in lots of angst at the moment and I need to mouth off. That's dedicated to all Arabs who think Obama is cool... those who believe Obama leads a bright, promising future for America and the world, including the Arab World.

Well, that's partially true, though, because Obama does have promising plans for the future of the free nation of America, but to me, as an Arab, he offers me nothing. I have seen it everywhere. People jumping from joy all around me because Obama won the presidency... these people are neither Americans nor living in America, but still support an American president. The guys put up status messages on Facebook saying "Obama FTW" (FTW=For The Win) and "Go Obama". Yeah, I know it's cool to have a new president after eight years of Republicans ruling the world. But hey, I'm not American, so it's not cool.

I'd like to say first that I praise Obama for what he is. He is a really charismatic person with a lot of influence. He is not arrogant like Bush. He is educated and knows what he's talking about. If I was American, I would surely give my vote to Obama. But as an Arab, I refuse to support someone who has every intention of fighting Arabs, and especially Muslims.

As an Arab, and particularly (but not limited to) Muslim, I must take a stand against many of America's oppressive policies. I have to stress on the fact that I'm opposing the American policies, but not Obama in person, nor McCain or Bush. McCain seems to me more of an Arab-hater than Obama, but both follow the same American political agenda and work hard to achieve what's best for America. America's interests do not change with the president. It's the same country, but with a different face.

So Obama promised a lot of things, including ending the war in Iraq, improving health care and energy independence, which, at some point, Obama pointed out as his three main objectives. Again, I'm stressing that these are objectives that are best for America. They don't even benefit us in the least bit. He must end the war in Iraq because it's a major contributor to America's deficit.

Energy independence is actually not doable for a nation like America. America's energy comes from the OPEC countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, etc.), Russia, Venezuela and Canada. In this speech, Obama promises that in ten years, America will end its dependence on oil from the Middle East. Although this is not doable, if it happens, that's a ban on Arab countries.

I believe this is impossible, though, because America depends largely on oil. American oil from the Middle East is 15% of its total oil imports. It cannot recover that amount by increasing imports from Russia or Venezuela, which do not seem very much under American control as much as Middle Eastern countries. The OPEC countries are also close allies to the United States, pretty much the same as Canada, so such move is not favourable for America. It does not seem to me as an environmental issue neither because 15% is still not enough to reduce our carbon footprint.

Plus, he is pro-Israel. So that doesn't change much from America's position in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Just the same way "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" goes, I could say "The friend of my enemy is my enemy". That's simple logic and sums the whole thing up.