I don't think I could improve upon M.J. Rosenberg's summary of what the meaning of the Obama speech would be to the Mid East. Clearly it was directed at that audience and its reception (except perhaps in the Likud and other expansionist parties in Israel) was very good. What struck me was how a similar speech might be addressed to an American audience, perhaps at one of the Think Tanks that is at the heart of the American Military Industrial Complex. This is a speech that Americans may not be ready for, but some time in the next three years, Obama should make it.

Obama seeks a new beginning with the Arab World. Part of that is the acknowledgement of what can only be described as the Imperial history of American intervention in the Arab world. There are hints in the Cairo speech that he understands this legacy.

The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations...

Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences in my country and around the world. Although I believe that the Iraqi people are ultimately better off without the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, I also believe that events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy and build international consensus to resolve our problems whenever possible. Indeed, we can recall the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said: "I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be."...

For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is indeed a tumultuous history between us. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians. This history is well known. Rather than remain trapped in the past, I have made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question, now, is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build.

It is one thing for the President to state that "America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire", but it is quite another matter to prove it by reining in the military industrial complex that has ruled Washington budgets since 1950. 57 years ago, President Eisenhower spoke to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. His words are just as true today as then.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.