Column

Americans may be forgetting about the Iraq War, but the Arab world is watching the volatile situation more intently than ever. In a recently released Zogby International public opinion poll of six Arab countries, respondents listed Iraq—not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “enhanced interrogation” methods, closing Guantanamo Bay or negotiations with Iran—as the most important issue influencing their attitudes towards the Obama Administration.

  

President Obama, who has virtually omitted Iraq from foreign policy discussions since he outlined his pullout plan three months ago, should take note. In a January interview with Al-Arabiyya, the president pledged to improve U.S. ties with Muslim countries through both perception and policy, underscoring the importance of language and “mutual respect” (which likely led to his administration abandoning references to the “war on terror”). He is slated to give his first major address from an Arab capital on June 4th in Cairo, and he has hatched the idea of convening a “Muslim summit” to help address simmering U.S.-Arab tensions. But the opinion poll results should serve as a stark reminder that none of these gestures will matter as much as the fate of Iraq. “Ultimately,” Obama admitted to Al-Arabiyya, “People [in the Muslim world] are going to judge me not by my words, but by my actions.”