Rick Moran
American Thinker
1/30/2011
A great article by the literary editor of The New Republic, Leon Wieseltier, who chastises Obama and the left for their response to events in Egypt:
The administration’s predicament, it must be said, is strategically complicated: since Mubarak may fall, it cannot afford to alienate the protestors, but since the protestors may fail, it cannot afford to alienate Mubarak. Our officials have been improvising, not altogether brilliantly. Joe Biden fatuously declared that “I would not refer to [Mubarak] as a dictator.” Robert Gibbs said that “this is not about taking sides.” Hillary Clinton, who used to speak warmly of Mubarak as “family,” has called for “restraint” and “reform” and “dialogue,” and warned that a crackdown could affect American aid to Egypt-as if anything but a crackdown is to be expected from Mubarak. And Barack Obama is also trying to finesse things, urging Mubarak to transform “a moment of volatility” into “a moment of promise”-the eloquence is irritating: there are times when the power of language is not the power that is needed-and proclaiming that “the United States will continue to stand up for the rights of the Egyptian people.”
Continue? There is nothing wrong with crisis management in a crisis, but the problem that the Obama administration now confronts is precisely that it has not been a cornerstone of American policy toward Egypt to stand up for the rights of the Egyptian people. It has preferred cronyism with the regime occasionally punctuated by some stirring remarks. What we are witnessing, in the confusion and the dread of the administration, are the consequences of its demotion of democratization as one of the central purposes of American foreign policy, particularly toward the Muslim world…
Read the rest at the American Thinker.
Update: The End of Colonialism as an Excuse
Update 2: Babalu blog has a brilliant, must-read article, with video, Out of the Frying Pan into the Caliphate
An Iraqi protester, holding a depiction of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, chants slogans against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a demonstration in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday.
…Honey cites Obama’s [mis]handling of Honduras that legitimately followed its own constitution and ousted the tyrant that was in violation of it. But look to the “Green Movement” in Iran less than two years ago, where the masses of Iranians began in protest of a stolen election by Ahmadinejad. After 30 years under Islamic rule the Iranian people were hoping to vote out, through Iran’s version of “democracy” by way of oppressive theocracy, and the Obama administration did not support their outrage and demands for immediate regime change, freedom and real democracy. By contrast, the administration has had a louder voice in calling for Egypt to do just that. Sec. Clinton kept saying “transition” in her morning statements. Atransition to what and who? And for all intents and purposes, Egypt is closer to a “democracy” than Iran (if that could possibly make sense to those of us who have a firm definition of what that term actually means)…
…I doubt the people in the streets of Cairo have had the chance to see the news today, but here is something they may have missed coming out of Iran … One man’s “free speech” is another man’s death sentence.
There are many here at Babalu that can relate to us how the throngs of a population can foolishly support an outside entity promising freedom and democracy as it topples an existing tyrant. (Tunisia, BTW, is not out of the woods, so to speak …) But history has always proven the axiom, “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss” … only worse. Communism and Islam are profiteering and opportunistic whores …
Update 3: Flashback: Condoleezza Rice calls for freedom, democracy in Egypt
