Obama's inauguration represents the greatest public relations defeat for Al Qaeda in their short history. Bush represented everything that made the Third World suspicious of America --- he was born filthy rich and enormously privileged, is a fundamentalist Christian, borderline illiterate, and has no knowledge or interest in anything outside of his own circle. He was the epitome of the stereotypically ugly American: aggressive, lazy, ignorant, apathetic, shallow, destructive, and incapable of empathy. He made Americans easy to demonize. He was Al Qaeda's greatest resource.
Now we have an American President who has a Swahili first name, an Arab middle name, and an African last name, who does not come from a rich family, who spent his early childhood in the Muslim nation of Indonesia, who is a minority in his own country, whose father was an East African immigrant. Obama has personally written books which are well-written and widely available, and who respects the Constitution, the rule of law, and human rights. Unlike his predecessor, he has higher goals than his own narrow political advantage. Obama will try to solve problems in Palestine, rather than to merely help the Israelis dominate the Arabs militarily. Over the coming years and months, as the Muslim world begins to notice that Obama means what he says and acts on it, minds will change. I predict that this will be Obama's greatest legacy --- convincing the Muslim world that American-style democracy represents their interests better than Al Qaeda's reactionary violence.
The leaders of Al Qaeda are undoubtedly smart enough to clearly see the implications of these facts. So I expect desperate terror attacks against the people and governments of India and Pakistan.
