Barry Rubin:
The news that the army has given a 48 hour ultimatum that unless stability returns it will step in has proven the headline of this article correct. Is the one-year-old experiment in Egyptian democracy going to end in the way that could have happened much easier in February 2011–that is a continuity of the regime without Mubarak’?
I should be sufficiently cautious to say that it is possible if everyone played nice they will stop BUT why should the opposition leave when they want the army to stage a coup?
Let us remember that four years ago Obama gave his Cairo speech sitting the Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the front row. President Husni Mubarak was insulted and it was the first hint that the Obama Administration would support Islamist regimes in the Arab world. Then Obama vetoed the State Department plan for a continuation of the old regime without Mubarak. Then Obama publicly announced–before anyone asked him–that the United States would not mind if the Brotherhood was in government. Then Obama did not give disproportionate help to the moderates. Then Obama pressed the army to get out of power quickly, which the moderates opposed since they needed more time than the Islamists to organize.
Many will say that the president of the United States cannot of course control events in Egypt. That’s true.’But he did everything possible to lead to this crisis.
Remember when Obama apologized for America’s past support of dictators? Well, how about this one?
I wonder if one day people will write that President Barack Obama is remarkably inept at foreign policy. Readers often say to me: You talk of stupidity and incompetence but he is doing this on purpose.
Let me make this clear: you can have a bad policy and a bad strategy but make it look good. The point is that Obama policy is so obviously bad—having circles run around it by Iran; the shameful Benghazi affair; the love affair with the Turkish regime; Kerry behaving as if he’ll have peace in the Middle East next Thursday and he cannot understand why no one ever thought of this before.
The height of administration wisdom in the Middle East is as if the most useful book has been The Dummy’s Guide to Ventriloquism.
The implication of this, however, is that it is the public that is dumb or misled.
Try this one out. Say to a friend or someone:
Does it bother you that the United States is backing a regime led by anti-American, anti-Christian, antisemitic, anti-women, and anti-gay rulers who are unrepentant former Nazi collaborators?
I usually find that people who are selected at random politically sort of shrug.
Then ask, do you believe that such rulers will become moderate.
I see this ultimatum by the Egyptian army as very possibly a good thing. The Egyptian Army was able to keep a relatively peaceful relationship with Israel.
We should pay close attention to both this and the White House reaction.
how come OBAMA DOES SUCH MISTAKES AS TO TELL ALLIES TO RESIGN,
this without listening to the PEOPLE HERE, YES THE AMERICANS,
YES THE CONSERVATIVES AGAIN TELLING OBAMA TO NOT GET INVOLVE IN OTHER COUNTRIES
POLITICS, he did it randomly one after the other to have the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD INSTALLED,
HIS KIND OF FRIENDS ARE NOT THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA’S FRIENDS,
OBAMA DOES HIS OWN AGENDA AND WHAT THE PEOPLE SAY DOESN’T COUNT,
ALL THE ERRORS WHERE MADE ON HIS OWN PREROGATIVE HE WANTED IT SO BAD, HE PAYED BILLIONS TO GET IT AND THAT IS THE PEOPLE’S MONEY HE SPEND FREELY ABROAD,
WE TOLD HIM ON THE FIRST CALL HE DEMAND LIBYA TO RESIGN, WE TOLD HIM ON THE SECOND CALL HE DEMAND EGYPT TO RESIGN, AND SO ON, NOW HE IS HELPING THE REBELS IN SYRIA ,
HE WANT ASSAD TO RESIGN SO BAD THAT IT’S TOO OBVIOUS, WE CANNOT MISS IT,
HE DOES HIS WAY OR THE HIGHWAY ON THE POCKETS OF THE WORKING AMERICANS,