DOHA, Qatar, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A unique Middle East
debating forum has conclusively warned America that a victory by John McCain
in the US Presidential election would seriously undermine already damaged
relations with the Middle East.
In the largest voting margin yet recorded in the Doha Debates, now in
their fifth year, an audience of more than 350 people voted 87%-13% against a
motion suggesting that the Middle East would be better off with McCain as
President.
Hafez al-Mirazi, the former host of Al-Jazeera's Arabic weekly television
show From Washington said that just as President George W Bush had made the
Middle East "worse than it was eight years ago" so his "hawkish Republican
mate" would do the same.
He suggested McCain was eager to "fight and engage in wars" against Iran,
Syria "and anyone who would oppose America."
"Like Bush he wouldn't talk to his opponents and like Bush he shoots first
and talks later."
In an opening statement that drew loud applause from the packed audience,
Mr al-Mirazi warned that Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, was from the same
warmongering mould as Dick Cheney, Bush's vice-president "who happens to be a
quail hunter."
Mr al-Mirazi asked the audience at the debate, to be broadcast by BBC
World News on November 1 and 2, whether it could "imagine what would happen if
Palin, a moose hunter, reached the White House? It would be the same thing.
"What did Palin do when she visited Kuwait on her only trip to the Middle
East? She practiced shooting," Mr al-Mirazi said in reference to a visit by
Palin to US troops stationed there.
"A McCain-Palin victory would do to this fragile relationship what Lehman
Brothers did to the markets."
Dr Michael Signer, foreign policy adviser to Democratic Senator John
Edwards' presidential campaign in 2007-2008 and a highly respected foreign
policy expert, also attacked the motion and the dangers a McCain victory would
present.
Describing Barak Obama, the Democrat nominee, as "thoughtful and
deliberate" he said such qualities were of paramount importance during the
present troubled times.
"It is time we had a president who thinks before he acts rather than acts
before he thinks."
He said Mr Obama was an African-American who spent his formative years in
Indonesia, a Muslim nation, and would be a president "who wants to understand
and listen, rather than just talk."
Danielle Pletka, Vice President for Foreign and Defence Policy Studies at
the American Institute for Public Policy Research, supported the motion,
suggesting that Senator McCain was the only Presidential candidate who would
not "walk away" from Iraq leaving the region to return to sectarian violence.
She said Obama was constantly changing his opinions and had even offered
to negotiate "unconditionally" with Iran.
Dr Saad al-Ajmi, former Kuwaiti Minister for Information and Culture,
said he supported the motion largely because he feared that Mr Obama would
pull US troops out of Iraq prematurely "before they had cleared up the mess
they created".
About the Doha Debates:
The Doha Debates are a unique forum for free speech in the Arab world.
Chaired by Tim Sebastian, the internationally renowned award winning
broadcaster, the series has been broadcast on BBC World since January 2005.
BBC World reaches nearly 300 million people in more than 200 countries.
The Doha Debates are hosted and funded by the Qatar Foundation for
Education, Science and Community Development. The Foundation is a private,
chartered, nonprofit organization committed to the belief that a nation's true
wealth is in the potential of its people. Chaired by Her Highness Sheikha
Mozah bint Nasser al Missned, the wife of the Emir, it seeks to develop that
potential through a network of centres devoted to education, public health and
research.
