Obama Blew It by Picking Cairo

On Thursday, President Obama will make his much-anticipated address to the Muslim world with the aim of forging a new relationship with a part of the world that was all too often demonized by the Bush administration’s destructive and counterproductive “war on terrorism” rhetoric. But in choosing Cairo as the setting for his historic speech, Obama has made a grave mistake, one that could conceivably make this entire event a fruitless exercise. In fact, it just may confirm the prediction of Obama’s fiercest critics in the region, who are already decrying this speech as nothing more than a photo op.