“In Arab Spring, Obama Finds a Sharp Test. . . . Mr. Obama, on Feb. 1, 2011, told [Egyptian president] Mubarak that [he] had to step down.  Minutes later, a grim Mr. Obama appeared before hastily summoned cameras. The end of Mr. Mubarak’s 30-year rule, Mr. Obama said, ‘must begin now.’  With those words, Mr. Obama upended three decades of American relations with its most stalwart ally in the Arab world, putting the weight of the United States squarely on the side of the Arab street.”

“It was a risky move by the American president, flying in the face of advice from elders on his staff at the State Department and at the Pentagon, who had spent decades nursing the autocratic—but staunchly pro-American—Egyptian government.

“Nineteen months later . . . anti-American protests broke out in Egypt and Libya [and] led to the deaths of four Americans, including the United States ambassador to Libya.

“Mr. Obama had learned hard lessons over almost two years of political turmoil in the Arab world: bold words and support for democratic aspirations are not enough to engender good will in this region.” —The New York Times

“Washington is asking Egypt to honor its treaty with Israel, [but] Washington should also live up to its own Camp David commitment to Palestinian self-rule.  The United States must respect the Arab world’s history and culture, even when that conflicts with Western values. . . . The United States should not expect Egypt to live by its rules. . . . If you want to judge the performance of the Egyptian people by the standards of German or Chinese or American culture, then there is no room for judgment. When the Egyptians decide something, probably it is not appropriate for the U.S.  When the Americans decide something, this, of course, is not appropriate for Egypt.”—The New York Times

“U.S. Is Preparing for a Long Siege of Arab Unrest.  The White House is girding itself for an extended period of turmoil that will test the security of American diplomatic missions and President Obama’s ability to shape the forces of change in the Middle East.”—The New York Times

“An armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme.  Cruisers, aircraft carriers and minesweepers from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war.”

“Western leaders are convinced that Iran will retaliate to any attack by attempting to mine or blockade the shipping lane through which passes around 18 million barrels of oil every day, approximately 35 per cent of the world’s oil traded by sea.  A blockade would have a catastrophic effect on the fragile economies of Britain, Europe the United States and Japan, all of which rely heavily on oil and gas supplies from the Gulf.”

•  “With Obama policy crumbling, White House blames movie for Mideast unrest.  With anti-American demonstrations exploding across the Muslim world, the White House insists that the deadly attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya and violent protests targeting U.S. facilities in Egypt and several other countries are entirely the result of an anti-Islamic video on YouTube.

“This is a fairly volatile situation and it is in response not to United States policy, not to the administration, not to the American people,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday.  “It is in response to a video, a film that we have judged to be reprehensible and disgusting.  That in no way justifies any violent reaction to it, but this is not a case of protests directed at the United States or at U.S. policy.  This is in response to a video that is offensive to Muslims.”—The Washington Examiner

•  "The deeply held American belief that all you have to do is liberate people from serfdom and dictatorship, and then democracy and a market economy will develop more or less on their own, burned to ash in the trial by fire of Iraq.  A fact that academics and historically-informed diplomats have always known can now be observed throughout the Arab world: Deeply ingrained cultural attitudes do not change simply because one political regime replaces another.  In the long process of building a democratic society, it is not possible to simply skip stages."—Allgemeine Zeitung

•  "President Barack Obama's Middle East policy is in ruins. Like no president before him, he tried to win over the Arab world. After some initial hesitation, he came out clearly on the side of the democratic revolutions. . . . In this context, he has snubbed old close allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Egyptian military. . . . Anti-Americanism in the Arab world has even increased to levels greater than in the Bush era.  It's a bitter outcome for Obama.  One thing is clear: If jihadists believe they can attack American installations and kill an ambassador on the anniversary of Sept. 11, then America's deterrent power has declined considerably."—Die Welt

•  "Three years after Obama's speech in Cairo, which was supposed to initiate a new beginning in the Middle East, the United States now has even less support in the region than before. . . . It is the consequences of an American foreign policy that for decades favored power over democracy, and a hard line over human rights—and which will suffer from a credibility problem for a long time for precisely those reasons."—Handelsblatt

•   “Iran:  Let’s Price Crude at $150 per Barrel”—Reuters

“The data support your general point that total petroleum product demand is at 1997/98 levels. . . .  This 15 years of demand destruction cannot be explained fully by increased efficiency or increased use of biofuels and renewables (these have, at most, a marginal effect). This is truly an indication of the real and continuing trouble in our economy, high unemployment and underemployment, loss of manufacturing, and reduction of shipping.

“Demand for gasoline continues to be below 2002 levels

“Distillate demand for April - June, it is down nearly 4.5% from last year . . . at its lowest level since 2002. Since diesel demand is a very good proxy for the health of the economy (all shipping uses diesel--trucking, rail, barge, etc.), this weakening from last year continues to be source of concern for the economy.

“Demand for jet fuel has also fallen dramatically from 2007/08 (it had also fallen dramatically after the 9/11 attacks, never fully recovering to the levels seen from 1999 - 2001). KJet demand continues to be at levels we have not seen since 1994/95.

“These numbers do not tell me that we are in a recovery.”