printSpeaking of boobs (http://barelyablog.com/?p=33995), Dana Perino, the Heidi Klum of the commentariat, wishes Iraq on the Egyptians. Perino, who was once a spokesperson to Bush, a man who was barely able to speak, prattled to a reserved Megyn Kelly on Fox News about the upheaval in Egypt.
Mentioning her boss’ achievements in Iraq made Ms. Mindless glow with pride. She pointed out that the bliss in Baghdad was brought about in response to the democratic urges of the Iraqis—yes, this was murder with majority approval, an American majority (http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=363.) Perino also implied that glorious Iraq is a product of a well-thought out philosophy.
Airheads aside, serious analysts—the kind who also live in the region or visit it on occasion—say Iraq “is looking a lot like Lebanon,” violent and balkanized beyond repair. Its few remaining Christians are being systematically exterminated.
Perino gave another shout-out of sorts to Iranian interests. Without being asked, she dredged up the Gaza-strip elections her boss had agitated for and got, back in the day. If you recall, those gave us Hamas.
Another day, another dullard.
Even John Bolton, who’ll take any position in opposition to Obama’s less bellicose foreign policy, seemed to agree with the restraint of the State Department’s response to the riots roiling Egypt.
Contrast Bolton’s unusual retrain with the American Enterprise Institute’s formulaic demand that “President Obama’s administration … assert the U.S. government’s role as the preeminent defender of freedom in the world. … Now is not the time for equivocation.”
Ditto the Weekly Standard. The folks there hanker after a time “when the Bush White House was feeling its oats with victories for the freedom agenda in Iraq and then Lebanon.”
That’s the neoconservative parallel universe for you.
In response to Bush pressure, “Mubarak pushed back with the 2005 parliamentary elections when he awarded the Muslim Brotherhood some 20 percent of the seats—if you want democracy, the Egyptian president seemed to be warning the White House, I’ll stick Osama bin Laden’s friends in parliament.”
Justin Raimondo, at Antiwar.com (for which I once wrote a bi-weekly column), puts “the revolutionary wave now sweeping the world” in the context of catastrophic economic policies and attendant realities. This wave will not spare the US, despite “the myth of ‘American exceptionalism,’ which supposedly anoints us with a special destiny and gives us the right to order the world according to our uniquely acquired position of preeminence.”
Coming to a neighborhood near you?
UPDATE I: You bet. In Egypt, “The government must approve the formation of political parties, effectively assuring its monopoly on political power.” (Via Infoplease.com ) More to the point: “the country’s inefficient state-run industries, its bloated public sector, and its large military investments resulted in inflation, unemployment, a severe trade deficit, and heavy public debt.”
State-caused poverty and the attendant lack of opportunities are likely the catalysts that have sent Egyptians into the streets.
The emphasis, in the US, exclusively on politics and on Egypt’s democracy deficit is myopic. Nevertheless, this focus allows DC’s chattering classes to forget that we too, albeit to a lesser extent, are over-leveraged. Our moocher and looter classes might also riot once they can no longer live out the life to which they are accustomed.
UPDATE II (Jan. 29): “A Wave of Global Inflation” is the tipping point for Egypt. Jerry Bowyer, author of “Free Market Capitalist’s Survival Guide,” agrees about the role of inflation and the attendant spike in the prices of basic necessities in the crisis in Egypt.
Savage is talking about the situation in Egypt right now and how both the Bush and Obama administrations have been actively working on supporting the overthrow of Mubarrek. CAn they be that stupid? Going by actions, that looks about right. If our own Govt. promotes the freely elected Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood govt’s throughout the Middle East, then why would we be fighting any ground war against Islam? No meddling was Barry Soetoro’s policy towards the Iranians who took to the streets after the Iranian bogus elections. Just the opposite for Egypt. Rage doesn’t begin to capture what I am feeling for my country’s government and how we are messing up the world.
[Is “Barry” really intervening?]
Headline from the Daily Telegraph —
“Egypt protests: America’s secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8289686/Egypt-protests-Americas-secret-backing-for-rebel-leaders-behind-uprising.html
More on the “April 6 Youth Movement” —
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_6_Youth_Movement
When rebellion comes, tyrants in power MUST suppress it brutally or it will snowball until Hosni flees and collects the remains of his Swiss bank account. Ask Hafez Assad who gunned down 20,000 to maintain power in Syria. President Buchanan’s dithering only allowed “the rebels” to get established in spite of other advice:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/shoot-him-on-the-spot/
and then it was up to Lincoln to decide to either allow the South to be peacefully independent or to send hundreds of thousands of men to their death:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/the-south-rises-again-and-again-and-again/
As Raimondo notes, for every Havel or Washington, there are dozens of Napoleons (“benign” tyrants) and dozens of Maos (“malignant” murderous tyrants). Few should be optimistic that Egypt will wind up with any Abdul Jefferson … EITHER the Army will back Mubarak and bust heads, the Army with evolve a “kindler gentler” Replacement Mubarak like when the Polish Communists “replaced” Gomulka with Gierek, or the doo-doo really hits the fan and Egypt could get some Moslem Brotherhood “Democracy Theocracy”.
In any case, the American response will be completely IRRELEVANT and counterproductive. One might as well have Netanyahu cutting commercials for Mubarak’s “re-election”!
And when Americans find their own finances gone, IT COULD GET UGLY HERE TOO!
Sounds remarkably like the current U. S. of A. With regard to “American exceptionalism”, it seems to be that one of the major ways that the U.S. has historically been exceptional was in its relatively free-market approach to domestic problems (the U.S. has historically used tariffs to excess). This has helped the country in a myriad of ways. Under FDR and his recent clone, Barack Obama, the country is headed down the sewer. The best one can say about Obama is that he is an economic illiterate, although one really wonders how anyone could be as dim-witted as he appears (though Krugman is a good example of such). Another real possibility is that Obama is simply malevolent.
If the Muslim Brotherhood takes over in Egypt, that 50% unemployment will go through the roof. Do I care – not really – they are reaping what they have sowed, as you say. I wonder how tourism will be affected – who in their right mind would want to visit the pyramids with that group in charge – doubt if the MB cares about that either.
If you can call Barry’s words “intervention” then yes, he is sticking his nose in to give “moral” support to Mubarek’s enemies. Would he send troops there? Of course not.
It doesn’t matter how many times our government promotes democracy in the middle east and they get a Hamas-like out come, they keep trying it over and over again expecting a different result. Didn’t I once hear that as the definition of insanity?
Dan
The economic conditions in Egypt appear to be self inflicted. It’s is not clear to me what the forces in the Egyptian streets represent. My guess is the people in the streets represent a wide variety of interests from economic, to political freedoms, to Islamic fundamentalists, to name a few.
In the end it may not matter. If Murbarak decides to crush the rebellion (refer to Tinamen Square) then Egypt will continue on it arc of economic decline. On the other hand if Mubarak steps down the transfer of power to a new government must be done in a careful, clear, orderly way. In the short term a so called power vacuum will exist. It is not clear to me whether the Muslim Brotherhood has enough power/support to take over either through a direct coup or through the ballot box.
I don’t believe it is in anyone’s best interests if Egypt becomes another Islamic Theocracy.
It also appears that the United States has been supporting both sides in this situation. I realize that foreign policy in operation can be pretty ugly business. However, I still think our fundamental principles (however lost they may be) should still guide our actions abroad. I don’t believe that trying to manipulate the political conditions in Egypt is what President Washington meant by avoiding entanglements in foreign powers.