Posted on 01/29/2011 8:40:37 AM PST by ken5050
Has anyone else noticed, amid the continuous coverage of the unfolding events in Egypt, that there is hardly any coveage/discussion as to what to do about the Suez Canal?There is more talk/concern about the Pyramids and the Nation Museum than the implication of the Canal being either temporarily closed or, worse, if Egypt does end up, as some have surmised, like another Iran, under the control of a radical Muslim regime. Scary, eh? So what to do..
A radicalized Egypt so close to Israel and the rest of the Med Sea is a real problem.
Yes, I'm quite aware of that, and Ike later admitted his regrets over the handling of it. Nevertheless, I would much rather have Ike sitting in the oval office than what we have now.
There is never a good time to have a bad president. Aren’t we lucky to be saddled with a president who is hard at work to stick it to America, but good. Sarah, we need you now.
Nothing, the canal isn’t as important to the world as it is to the arabs.
Most oil tankers are too big to go through the canal.
If the U.S. (and Israel) were determine to keep it open, it would stay open. In order to do so, they would have to claim (and maintain) jurisdiction over it.
Of course, this is not back in the day where kicking ass meant just two words, and not a 6-month debate on our 'moral compass'. Frankly, I am more concerned with how Egypt simply turned off the Internet. But I guess that's something to be addressed in a separate post.
You can’t protect the suez without controlling all the land in the area. I’d say if the suez gets blockaded, there’s no opening it by force. It would be a death trap.
I think we have seen that, because of the global interconnectedness, what happens in Europoe has a way of affecting us in America and vice versa. Having said that, there’s no doubt that possession of the Suez Canal by radical Islamic types represents the worst possible outcome in all of this.
It would have worked the last time it was tried. The US, under Eisenhower, put the kibosh on that little adventure.
Is that aircraft carrier pulling a skier?
I’ve always wondered why Israel gave it back to Egypt.
[I’ve always wondered why Israel gave it back to Egypt.]
I thought that was Carter who gave the canal away.
“Here’s what we do about it:
We drill for our own oil and let them rot in hell.
There. Problem solved.”
I like your solution. Unfortunately, many of our politicians are death-deserving treasonous bastards who accept Saudi cash (blood money) to NOT drill here...
I believe that it is required that ships passing through the Suez are piloted by Egyptians regardless of registry.
The big question is whether or not the Egyptian pilots are affected by the unrest. If so, it’s a no-go. I don’t believe you can pass into or through their waters without meeting this requirement.
Breaking it is probably a very big escalation.
I always got a kick out of these foreign countries bewailing the fact that "Westerners" took all their artifacts for their museums. If we hadn't, not much would be left, as the present set up reminds us.
Hand off control to the Somali Pirates.
>>The prospect exists of having images of brocko burned in effigy, and, of course, the American flag. I think the former prospect might just put brocko into a fetal position, sucking on his thumb (or his favorite “other”).
LMBO, and you are spot on with that!
>>I’ve always wondered why Israel gave it back to Egypt.
Part of the brokered Camp David Accords peace treaty in the wake of the Yom Kippur War.
It is worthwhile to know about this aspect of Camp David:
“The agreement also resulted in the United States committing to several billion dollars worth of annual subsidies to the governments of both Israel and Egypt, subsidies which continue to this day, and are given as a mixture of grants and aid packages committed to purchasing U.S. materiel.”
The next time some Lefty starts wailing about all our aid to Israel, point out that it is primarily a “buyout” for their giving up the Sinai, a buyout negotiated by Jimmy Carter and his people. The ongoing aid to Egypt is really a relic of the Cold War, as we didn’t want them to fall back in the Soviet orbit, which Camp David largely pulled them out of.
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