Obama to Give Middle East Address Thursday

Yeah, and a lot of good it's gonna do.

See Los Angeles Times, "Obama's upcoming speech will spell out his Mideast rationale."

President Obama will seek to define his administration's stance toward the rapid changes in the Middle East and North Africa in a major address Thursday in which he will cast the U.S. as a facilitator rather than the instigator of political change in the Arab world.

As uprisings have swept through the region, Obama has been criticized from both the left and the right for taking too passive an approach. In Egypt, as demonstrators began demanding the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, a longtime U.S. ally, the administration initially seemed to vacillate on its course, and ended up angering Mubarak's supporters as well as his opponents.

In Bahrain and Syria, the U.S. has largely remained on the sidelines as authoritarian regimes have sought to crush domestic opposition. And in Libya, the U.S. has backed the use of NATO military power against Moammar Kadafi's regime in a limited fashion.

Critics have said the administration is merely reacting to events and lacks an overall strategy. Obama's speech, aides say, will give the president an opportunity to lay out the rationale for his approach.

See also, Wall Street Journal, "Obama to Pledge New Mideast Aid."

Hope that helps, or ... well, from Barry Rubin, "Read It Now: The Possible/Probable Main Crisis for 2012."