The Regional Backlash Against the U.S. Over Gaza Is Huge

The U.S. has made itself more loathed across the Middle East and North Africa than it has probably ever been.

The Financial Times reports on the regional popular backlash against the U.S. over the war in Gaza:

Western and Arab officials fear that the US — long the dominant foreign power in the region — is alienating an entire cohort of young Arabs, likening the outrage triggered by the Gaza war to the regional backlash that followed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

“We’re witnessing unprecedented levels of anger towards the west, and the US in particular,” said a western diplomat in the region. “This is worse than 2003, when [the west] lost so much of its moral authority. Now I fear we’ll lose the next generation.”

It will take the U.S. decades to repair even some of the damage that support for this atrocious war has done to its reputation, and in the meantime it can expect intense resentment across the region. While Washington will continue to cooperate with its authoritarian client rulers for the foreseeable future, our government has taken its standing with Arab publics to new lows and it will be paying the price for that for years to come. The U.S. has made itself more loathed across the Middle East and North Africa than it has probably ever been, and it has stained its name for all time as an accomplice to mass starvation and genocide.