Posted on 01/30/2011 3:46:19 PM PST by fightinJAG
Obama administration officials say they are not taking sides between President Hosni Mubarak, Americas key ally in the Arab world, and the street protesters who purportedly represent a path to democracy in authoritarian Egypt. These officials might even believe what theyre saying. But the very assertion of not taking sides is itself a tilt away from the all-out support traditionally given by Washington to this Egyptian strongman in recent decades.
The administrations move is a slide toward the unknown. Senior officials have no idea of exactly who these street protesters are, whether the protesters are simply a mob force incapable of organized political action and rule, or if more sinister groups hover in the shadows, waiting to grab power and turn Egypt into an anti-Western, anti-Israeli bastion. The White House has called upon its intelligence agents and diplomats to provide answers, but only best guesses are forthcoming.
[snip]
But those officials who think this way forget their history. When President George W. Bush made his push for democracy in Arab lands, he ended up with Hamas terrorists winning a democratic election and ruling the Gaza Strip. And this democratic thinking also overlooks that Bushs pressing for democracy in Lebanon helped open the doors to power for the radical Hezbollah group. And yes, the anti-shah revolution in 1979 started out with moderates in power, only to be pushed aside by the clerical radicals who still rule today. In rotten regimes that fall to street mobs, the historical pattern has been moderates followed by new dictators. Just remember the model of the Bolsheviks, a tiny group of extremely well-organized communists, wresting control away from the great majority of discontented and disorganized Russians in 1917.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
“Good Grief. Obama Cut Funding for Egyptian Democracy Programs Before the Current Crisis”
Posted by Jim Hoft on Saturday, January 29, 2011
From the article:
“In its first year, the Obama administration cut funding for democracy and governance programming in Egypt by more than half, from $50 million in 2008 to $20 million in 2009 (Congress later appropriated another $5 million). The level of funding for civil society programs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was cut disproportionately, from $32 million to only $7 million. Though funding levels for 2010 are not yet available, they are expected to show an increase to $14 million, says Stephen McInerny, the director of advocacy at the Project on Middle East Democracy. He notes that the Bush administration slashed economic aid to Egypt in the 2009 budget but kept the funding for democracy and governance programs constant, while Obama cut funding to those programs in an effort to make the cuts more proportional and under pressure from the American embassy in Cairo.”
should they lapse into a theocratic tyranny - we will hope it is squashed like a bug.
“hope and change” is not working
Aye...won't be long before "America Held Hostage: The Sequel" and gas lines.
If this has been building up as long as Axelrod claims, then why the long vacation in Hawaii just one month ago? This guy never works. He’s a simple minded celebrity that should be hosting Wheel of Fortune or something.
He had a Private Partay last night.
I kid you not.
He had a Private Partay last night.
I kid you not
I read that. He doesn’t care. He does nothing. Others write his speeches, script his “calls” to foreign leaders- he probably has someone pretend they are BO so he doesn’t have to talk to them. Someone holds his hand in everything he does. That someone gave him permission to go to the party and told him not to worry that someone would handle the current crisis so he won’t have to miss any fun.
Also of note is Moochelle did not attend.
Hmmmm....
I’ve heard that Obama has yet to even speak to Mubarik. Think about that for a moment.
Say what you will about the man, he’s in power. He should have our interim support. We can speak of free speech etc. (funny didn’t hear those words when the people were being killed in the streets of Iran), but the message our gov’t should be sending is that, we will not allow thugs to overturn this gov’t.
SEt up some orderly process to pass rule, but by not taking sides, we are looking clearly as we did when Carter was president.
I agree with this article. In times like these, moderates step in followed by anarchists who are better organized.
The _resident and Chrissy Math-U’s are worried about the Panama Canal over there, ain’t they?
That would be the Suez Canal.
Beg to differ my friend. Obama couldn’t find his own butt with both hands.
Just remember the model of the Bolsheviks, a tiny group of extremely well-organized communists, wresting control away from the great majority of discontented and disorganized Russians in 1917.
This is of course why the liberals fear the Tea Party
so much.
The repubs are not a threat to them but the repubs
lead and motivated by the Tea Party are a force to
be reconned with.
Mr. Mathews called it the Panama Canal the other night.
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