In 2009, Obama had made a now-famous speech in Cairo, Egypt to the Middle Eastern world in an attempt to restart the American relationship towards the region, which had been marked by mistrust during the Bush administration. The reaction throughout the Middle East had been full of hope for change of American policy towards the Arab world. Although there had been doubters, a significant portion of Middle Easterners had taken Obama's word.
Fast forward to May 2011, and much has changed in the Middle East; little of this change involving American policy. Obama had made promises in 2009 about re-establishing trust between the region and America, a promise many say had been broken; with military intervention in Libya and Yemen, as well as continued presence in Iraq, and Afghanistan, little has changed involving America in the Middle East.
Democratic revolution had indeed changed in the Arab world during the Arab Spring, but none of it had to do with Obama nor any American presence, despite Obama supporting these uprisings. If anything, it is American resources in Egypt and Yemen (through U.S. security aid to Mubarak and Saleh) that had helped suppress these uprisings. Obama's promises of trust to the Middle Eastern world in 2009, although inspirational, were empty promises.
When giving his speech a few days ago, the reaction among Middle Easterners was justified; they were simply not impressed and in a sense ignored his call for a 'reset button' on relations between the two. Although in his May 2011 speech Obama announced initiatives giving aid to these newly born democracies (Tunisia/Egypt), it had mostly fallen on deaf ears. This is simply because in the last six months of the Arab Spring, America has become irrelevant as a player in politics throughout the Middle East. In Obama's and the State Department's defense, however, there were no early signs that revolution was imminent even weeks before the first protests triggered in Tunisia.
Regardless, the Obama Administration had become powerless in these affairs, because the people had taken matters into their own hands, without any help from foreigners (exception being Libya, in which war still drags on). The people's indifferent reaction to Obama's speech, even in the wake of his ground breaking policy of using the pre-1967 borders for the Israel/Palestine conflict, is understandable as much as it should be expected. America's favorite excuse for meddling in foreign affairs is the continued goal of democratization, an excuse that no longer applies to them.
David Ignatius of the Washington Post had put it best:
"The backdrop of this frantic self-preservation is the breakup of America’s reluctant empire. The kings and presidents (not to mention people in the streets) saw in Egypt that the United States wouldn’t rescue its clients. Exhausted by Iraq and Afghanistan (and perhaps also made wiser by these wars), America wasn’t in the business of saving autocratic dictators."
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/obama-speech-greeted-with-skepticism-yawns-in-mideast/2011/05/19/AFfVhI7G_story.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/writing-the-middle-easts-new-narrative/2011/05/17/AFTmAm6G_story.html
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