The Financial Times reports on the regional popular backlash against the U.S. over the war in Gaza:
Western and Arab officials fear that the US — long the dominant foreign power in the region — is alienating an entire cohort of young Arabs, likening the outrage triggered by the Gaza war to the regional backlash that followed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
“We’re witnessing unprecedented levels of anger towards the west, and the US in particular,” said a western diplomat in the region. “This is worse than 2003, when [the west] lost so much of its moral authority. Now I fear we’ll lose the next generation.”
It will take the U.S. decades to repair even some of the damage that support for this atrocious war has done to its reputation, and in the meantime it can expect intense resentment across the region. While Washington will continue to cooperate with its authoritarian client rulers for the foreseeable future, our government has taken its standing with Arab publics to new lows and it will be paying the price for that for years to come. The U.S. has made itself more loathed across the Middle East and North Africa than it has probably ever been, and it has stained its name for all time as an accomplice to mass starvation and genocide.
According to the Arab Opinion Index poll, 76% of all respondents across the region, including Arab countries in North Africa, have a “more negative” view of U.S. policy as a result of our government’s support for the war. That percentage is probably going to rise as the catastrophe in Gaza worsens. 94% of all respondents said that the U.S. response to the war was very bad or bad. The U.S. is making itself politically radioactive, and I suspect it will see its influence in these countries diminish rapidly as a result. Most respondents also held very negative views of the Arab governments most closely aligned with the U.S. with two-thirds holding a negative view of the UAE and the Saudis.
Washington will probably ignore the backlash and press ahead with hare-brained schemes for Saudi normalization and the like, but over the longer term the U.S. will find it difficult to succeed with any of its initiatives when it is so broadly and deeply hated. Even the most authoritarian governments have to take public opinion into account some of the time, and the Saudis and others will be in no rush to agree to normalization in the wake of the slaughter and famine in Gaza. It won’t be possible for the U.S. to stick with the bankrupt status quo for much longer before something gives.
Under these circumstances, the wisest thing that the U.S. could do in addition to ending its support for the war is to reduce its overall military presence and halt its meddling in the region as much as possible. It is natural that most people across the region despise our government’s interference and destructive policies, and the U.S. will never improve its standing as long as it continues those same policies. Instead of tying itself more closely to its bad clients, as Biden would do, the U.S. should be distancing itself from them and cutting them loose. Pursuing dominance is bad for American interests, and it is deeply resented by the people of the region. Everyone would be better off if the U.S. disentangled itself as much as it can from the region’s conflicts.