It appears that resolving long standing conflicts with Arabs and Muslims is a top priority for President Obama. Knowing it will take considerable time to reach any kind of resolution, the president decided to at least get the ball rolling. My sources in that part of the world tell me people are elated. It is important to understand WHY they are elated, though, because it all gets down to basic human nature. We have shown little respect toward these billion-plus people. How do you react to someone who makes it clear he/she has no respect for you? It doesn't matter what else happens in a relationship like that, the parties will never get anywhere without showing respect for each other.

I saw one news image at the start of the Iraq War in 2003 that told me we would never win the hearts and minds of those people. It was the photo of a fully armed US soldier standing over an Iraqi laying in the dirt. The soldier's left foot was firmly positioned on the Iraqi's back. Those who know me remember when I said we're going to lose this war. Recently, an Iraqi journalist threw his shoe at President Bush and it was repeated ad nauseum on television, probably because the Iraqi had great aim and might be a prospect for the Yankees.

But the message was clear to anyone in the Arab world - simply showing someone the sole of your shoe is a great insult; throwing the shoe is an insult with an exclamation point. Standing on someone means you consider that person lower than the dirt found on the bottom of a shoe. If the people who led us into that war had done the simplest research, they would have known shoes are meant for more than walking. Unfortunately, no one bothered to do much research about the Iraqi people. One reason is that we believed the people would welcome us with open arms. The real reason we did not know the rules of their culture though, was because we had no respect for them.