Friday, January 28, 2011

As Egypt Burns, Barack Obama Does His Best Jimmy Carter

A Middle Eastern despot, facing tens of thousands in the streets, sees his power tilting on a fulcrum whose point grows increasingly thinner. Desperate, he turns to the United States for support, and gets it, both in public statements and whispered into his ear. Nevertheless, the revolution succeeds, and old regime is overthrown, and a new power emerges, who's view of the United States is based upon it's unwavering support for the man who held them down for decades....

Egypt 2011? Actually, this is Iran 1979:

....the administration of then President Carter followed "no clear policy" on Iran. The U.S. ambassador to Iran, William H. Sullivan, recalls that the U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski “repeatedly assured Pahlavi that the U.S. backed him fully." On November 4, 1978, Brzezinski called the Shah to tell him that the United States would "back him to the hilt." ... Brzezinski and Energy Secretary James Schlesinger were adamant in their assurances that the Shah would receive military support...the Carter administration was consistently supportive of the Shah and urged the Iranian military to stage a "last-resort coup d'etat" even after the regime's cause was hopeless.

And we made an enemy that has grown in (evil) power and is still tormenting us today. With that lesson in mind, what actions are "student of history" Barack Obama and his stooges taking to avert a similar epic failure?

Well, actually...it seems as if they are doing everything they can to make sure they repeat the most horrific misjudgement in recent US foreign policy history.

Hillary Clinton seems as if she can't answer a 3AM phone call either - witness her
mealy-mouth statement full of the moral equivalence that makes liberal feel so good about themselves, but invariably leads to the death of others:

"We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against protesters. We call on the Egyptian government to do everything in its power to restrain security forces. At the same time, protesters should also refrain from violence and express themselves peacefully. We urge Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests and reverse unprecedented steps it has taken to cut down means of communications.

We strongly believe that the Egyptian government needs to engage with its people on immediate reforms. We want to partner with the Egyptian people and its government.”

What does Hillary think, this is a union bargaining session? This is revolution, and our elite are too stupid to see it (then again, they couldn't see the Tea Party forest for the trees, and that was much closer to home). Abe Greenwald comments further:

The protests are not peaceful and the regime is not so much cracking down as it is fighting for its survival. The time to urge a dictator to grant his people freedoms is before he’s flitting between burning buildings. But back when that was the case the Obama administration was too busy being pragmatic and humble to raise the issue of human rights in Egypt...

Joe Biden
pooh-poohs any talk of human rights, freedom, and revolution, and throws high-profile support behind the Mubarack regime:

JIM LEHRER: Some people are suggesting that we may be seeing the beginning of a kind of domino effect, similar to what happened after the Cold War in Eastern Europe. Poland came first, then Hungary, East Germany.

We have got Tunisia, as you say, maybe Egypt, who knows. Do you smell the same thing coming?


JOE BIDEN: No, I don’t. I wouldn’t compare the two

JIM LEHRER: The word — the word to describe the leadership of Mubarak and Egypt and also in Tunisia before was dictator. Should Mubarak be seen as a dictator?

JOE BIDEN: Look, Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things and he’s been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interests in the region: Middle East peace efforts, the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing the relationship with Israel.

And I think that it would be — I would not refer to him as a dictator....

And where's Obama, would-be savior of the Muslim world? "Convening aides", and keeping mum....

The 3AM moment is now, and Barack Obama is frozen by fear, while his high-level appointees mouth empty support for the protesters but offer a full-throated endorsement of the "Egyptian government", which is not run by a dictator, apparently...

Let's see how the Egyptian people see this a few weeks down the road. Will the chants of "Death to America!" fill the streets of Cairo? If I were in a foreign embassy out there, I'd be trying to get my sorry ass out. And fast.

We always said that Obama would be another Jimmy Carter, but never thought he could actually create another Iran.

We underestimated him.

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