Anyone with any intelligence back then would have figured out that Islamists’ had been working for years toward moving the masses on the streets of Tehran.

And now? Thirty-two years later, America, Israel, and the world are paying a price for that ill-informed and ill-conceived response. We should have learned a valuable lesson from that experience, but instead, the Obama Administration is repeating the same verse in the same chapter of the same book.

For years, Islamic education and Islamic militancy has been growing in Egypt. Islamic press and Islamic curriculum that is anti-Western, anti-Israel, and anti-Christian is being taught in schools throughout Egypt. The Wahabis have imposed Islamic symbols in the least likely places to succeed, places that had already come to modernity. Most notably, to me personally, during my recent visit to Alexandria, Egypt, were the changes to a city that once rivaled any western Mediterranean resort. In two short decades it has been transformed into a militant Islamic society where men and women bathe on the beaches in full Islamic garb. I thought to myself at the time, something has drastically changed and this change could not be for the good.

And sure enough, changes were evident in the attitude of average Muslim citizens toward Christians and their churches. When they could not fight the secular government of Hosni Mubarak, they took out their anger on Christians. Sadly, the Mubarak regime, anxious for survival, did very little other than to speak words to quell that hatred whilst the American administration stood with folded arms saying the White House is on the side of democracy, and on the side of freedom-loving people.

Now that the riots in Egypt are in full view of the world, the Obama Administration is playing the same game as Jimmy Carter, which will in all probability end with the same result. Many people are saying that it is too early to tell, but I can tell you that it will not be long before the American Administration allows the Egyptian government to fall and the same scenario of Iran of 1979 will be repeated with meticulous precision. The Islamists have put up a “front puppet” who happens to be an egotistical technocrat, who spent most of his life outside of Egypt as a prop. I’m talking of course about Mohamed El Baradei, who is the nemesis of Americans and who dragged his feet regarding the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Just as the Iranians put up a prop in Abdulhassan Banisadr, the first President after the Shah, the Egyptians will put up Mohamed El Baradei, and once an election is called, the Islamists will win the day and all these “freedom-loving,” “democracy-seeking” secular moderates will be used as fodder for the Islamists’ fire. The takeover of the country and union with Hamas and enmity to Israel will take place in earnest.

The problem with freedom and democracy in the Muslim world is that it is a figment of the imagination that only exists in the minds of Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.

Ping!

OBAMA IS MOSLEM AND KENYAN

Obama can do much more damage in the 2 years he has left.

And he surely will.

IMO the only move America had at this late stage was to tell Mubarak to quickly leave and quietly support the military in establishing a new government. Earlier on we could have demanded constitutional and economic reform but behind the scene. Now I have no hope of a good outcome. The critical point has come and gone.

The military owns Mubarak, and he will do exactly what they tell him to do.

Unfortunately, the weakness of our “president” is making a good outcome unlikely.

I'm not sure there is much we could have done for the Shah of Iran by the time the uprising took place. I attended the Armed forces Staff College in the late '60s. One of my classmates was an Army Special Forces Major who had spent a tour in the boondocks in Iran, not in Tehran. He said that it was obvious to him that the Shah was unpopular and wouldn't last, but the Embassy in Tehran was ignoring the facts. They were getting all their information from the Shah's government, rather than from people on the ground. The military attaches, likewise, were getting their information from their counterparts in the Iranian military, not from our own people in the field.

At least it didn't appear we were undermining the Shah, as it appears we were undermining Mubarak.

I appreciate the summary statement...”The problem with freedom and democracy in the Muslim world is that it is a figment of the imagination that only exists in the minds of Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.”

Muslims/Africans? Chinese can only parrot the words as they never had the wests heritage and evolution. All still trapped in the past.

Freedom , rights and democracy are a product of the free western Christian world.... dating probably back to the Magna Carta 1250(?). It was a evolutionary product of politics , philosophy and law.

The rest of the world was getting trapped up in the Koran then and have not been released from the 7th century. They are still in the dark ages.

Those monkeys and parrots have made a correct observation... freedom and rights exist only in the westerners mind. But , then again, thats what advanced the west over all others.

Apparently our president has been negotiating with the MB. In turn, the MB has instructed the military to prepare for war with Israel.

I appreciate the summary statement...”The problem with freedom and democracy in the Muslim world is that it is a figment of the imagination that only exists in the minds of Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton.”

Muslims/Africans? Chinese can only parrot the words as they never had the wests heritage and evolution. All still trapped in the past.

Freedom , rights and democracy are a product of the free western Christian world.... dating probably back to the Magna Carta 1250(?). It was a evolutionary product of politics , philosophy and law.

The rest of the world was getting trapped up in the Koran then and have not been released from the 7th century. They are still in the dark ages.

Those monkeys and parrots have made a correct observation... freedom and rights exist only in the westerners mind. But , then again, thats what advanced the west over all others.

What? Obama is using the MB as a proxy army against Israel?

The political issue in Egypt has not been solved and the White House is already moving on Israel....WTF!

...nothing like quick coup with Barry O endorsing the MB!

Its not the America I once knew....

editor-surveyor, I have been reading most of the day, had to leave, just back in. Thank You for the *ping*. The thing that bothers me the most is the communications on the ground in Egypt according to article (sorry, I do not remember the title) I read here, caused me to expect lowest level as the ending. While not shocked with what I read, for what I read was expected, the situation remains extremely fluid. Fluid or water seeks the lowest ground and pools where it wills when fluid or water is left to its own device and conclusion without restrictions. Lowest ground....This is my opinion of the outcome. May I be wrong.

The Shah and his government were undermined every step of the way. carter et al’s perception of the Shah was animated by their leftist’s mindset that the US had installed him wrongly in 1953; that the communist mossadegh was really a “democrat” and “democratically elected” . . . . LOL! Therefore from the very beginning he came into office w/ a chip on his shoulder regarding the Shah and had scores to settle.

I remember the scenes of the Monarch and the Empress Farah Diba visiting the WH right after carter’s inauguration and the purposeful way a band of so-called student demonstrators were allowed to come within a few feet of the dignitaries on the WH lawn w/ their bullhorns and conveniently for special effect the police used large amounts of tear gas affecting everyone! What mayhem! What utter disaster IF it was any other country, any other dignitary! The scene of all the smoke and coughing and the Shah whipping away tears while the bullhorns screeched death to him and the cameras rolled on and on is unforgettable and was beamed around the world. That was carter’s first shot across the bow — his first warning that he was coming after the Shah! I don’t think the Shah had an inkling yet, although intuitively he NEVER trusted democrap presidents of the USA and was weary of them.

Won’t you remember carter’s “human rights” campaign which as the STUXNET virus was focused like a laser beam exclusively on the Shah and Iran? (Where was he in 2008???)

Have you ever wondered why that backwaters karbala-exiled turbanhead killer moved residency so abruptly to Paris, France?!! LOL!!! Why would France accept him and care and protect him while khomeini’s attacks began to draw blood and Iran began falling? Who was behind that? It goes on and on and on and on.

No, the Shah and Iran were pushed by carter and his henchmen for many reasons, and in the end it turned out to be a colossal enduring debacle for USA — though a windfall for England/EU — and hell on earth for Iran and her people.

The military isn’t going to listen to the MB, much of their advanced training was received in Israel, and they now know the difference between fredom and serfdom.

Yes, I recall how Carter undercut the Shah. My point was that the Shah was already on the skids. I don't think we could have saved him. The most we could have done was delay the inevitable. He died shortly after leaving Iran. I've forgotten what the situation was, but he would have been out of office soon anyway.