Obama: Dictators Have No Reason to Fear

Just about a week into the 44th presidency in the United States, President Obama has already made clear that the Bush policy of pushing for democracy despite international standing is over. Instead, the palling around with dictators, soft hand with terrorists, and deaf ear to reformist efforts is in:

"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," President Barack Obama said in his inaugural. But in truth, the new way forward is a return to realpolitik and business as usual in America's encounter with that Greater Middle East. As the president told Al-Arabiya television Monday, he wants a return to "the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago."

Associated Press/Al-Arabiya

Barack Obama is interviewed by Al-Arabiya television on Monday.

Say what you will about the style -- and practice -- of the Bush years, the autocracies were on notice for the first five or six years of George. W. Bush's presidency. America had toppled Taliban rule and the tyranny of Saddam Hussein; it had frightened the Libyan ruler that a similar fate lay in store for him. It was not sweet persuasion that drove Syria out of Lebanon in 2005. That dominion of plunder and terror was given up under duress.

Change is sometimes not always a good thing.