Obama Played Like A Cheap Fiddle

hosni-mubarak

First, it seems some people are either clueless or deceptive in the origins and intentions of the Muslim Brotherhood, even after being told directly by someone who knows firsthand. The danger is one of these people is supposedly the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who just might be getting his resume in order (and that’s if we’re lucky).

It would appear the Obama Administration has been too quick to look as if they were some Western champions of ‘freedom and democracy’ in Egypt, but they either also do not have a clue or are being very deceptive (beginning @ 1:50). And as we saw this evening Pres. Mubarak of Egypt has not ‘stepped down’ … Not in the capacity he was being pressured to, anyway. And, at the very least, it is about to get very interesting to “watch the unfolding” in Egypt, and at the worst very dreadful and possibly bloody …

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Meanwhile, once again, the Obama Administration has shown itself to be extremely weak on foreign policy, and quite possibly have been ‘played’ by Mubarak … and by his own ‘teleprompter’, I imagine. From Barry Rubin:

This is a huge lesson in political culture. It also shows just how bad the media coverage has been! Mubarak is not resigning. He’s managing the “reform” process. He is appointing a committee to study constitutional changes. He will decide when there are elections. He is going to “consider” changing the emergency law.

He basically said: I am an Arab warrior, not a community organizer. That speech should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the Middle East.

As I told you this is not over yet. There has been no revolution so far. The protesters are going to freak out. Obama gave this jaunty statement of victory applauding Mubarak’s resignation, extolling Egypt’s new democracy, and claiming it was his doing. Either he didn’t know what Mubarak was going to say or he is going to look like a total fool.

In saying he won’t accept outside advice, *[Mubarak] took a direct slap at Obama. Can you imagine the expression on Obama’s face as he watched the speech after being told by his intelligence that Mubarak resigned? After he made a speech about how the youth had forced change? If I had to summarize it I’d say: Mubarak to Obama: Drop Dead!

BUT Obama endorsed the speech and was bragging about how he was the man who deserved credit for pushing Mubarak out. I believe he didn’t know what was going to happen. And if he spoke that way knowing what Mubarak would say, I can only tell you that things in the White House are even worse than I’ve been saying. Mubarak hit him so hard that he could be accused of what might be called Islamobamophobia.

[…]

If you think I’m being excessively enthusiastic about a dictator refusing to step down and give way to democracy, my reaction is in large part the entirely fascinating lesson we have been given in how Middle East politics works.

[…]

I’ve never seen anything like this Egypt crisis to demonstrate how ignorant the Western experts are about the Middle East.

When the general who announced that there would be a dramatic announcement said, “This ends tonight,” he was referring to the disorders and demonstrations, not to Mubarak.

Remember the most important sentence of the crisis: When Mubarak said that Obama doesn’t understand Egyptian (Arab) culture. Mubarak believes that you don’t yield ground or they cut your head off. You show you are tough and they back down.

That is the mentality we are seeing. There may be an outbreak of violence right now. But don’t think the army didn’t know that and must have some plan to deal with it. Because this was the equivalent of Gary Cooper, Charles Bronson, or Clint Eastwood saying, “You want it? Come and get it!”

Before this is over, there’s going to be a lot of blood in the streets of Cairo. […]

Worth reading in full

Others are pointing out just how much more complex dealing with Middle Eastern culture is, and how it takes much more than an unclenched fist and a deep bow to a man in Arab robes. Apparently Mubarak plays the Cairo Way better than Obama plays the Chicago Way.

As a footnote in all of this, nobody has looked at this, and it’s players, more realistically than the much maligned Glenn Beck. Well, one of his critics actually backed-up (unintentionally, I imagine) what Beck has been saying for the last couple weeks:

Go. Figure.

But Egypt aside … How safe do you really feel with these people in charge?

Added:

8 thoughts on “Obama Played Like A Cheap Fiddle”

  1. “As a footnote in all of this, nobody has looked at this, and it’s players, more realistically than the much maligned Glenn Beck.” That’s just not true. He’s concentrating solely on the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s fine, as everyone should know as much about them as possible. But the “players” are more widely represented by the young and the secular in Egypt.

    Babalu readers might see a more representative breakdown of the protestors here, with profiles of the activists:
    http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/02/10/egypt_youth_activists_april_6_kefaya_jan25/slideshow.html

    The idea that it is only the corrupt current government that can prevent an islamic takeover is a false choice. The people of Egypt have spoken. And they’re not calling for the return of the caliphate. Well, some are. But most want what you and I have. The dignity that comes with choosing your own representative government.

  2. jsb,

    I havent commented on this whole Egypt thing because I have some major concerns. Im still not completely convinced it’s been a youth fueled, grassroots type of thing from the very beginning, but it very well may be. problem is, these types of “movements”, once they’ve achieved a goal such as taking down the government, thus causing a leadership vacuum, tend to fall prey to the well organized extremists groups. It the case of Egypt, it may not be the MB who eds up usurping power, but it very well could be another similar group consisting of socialists, communists, and who knows what other “ists”. And in a region like the Middle East, with a tenuous, at best, “peace”, a power vacuum in Egypt and the struggle to acquire said power by numerous groups will undoubtedly get ugly and fast.

    I want to root for the good guys here. I really do. I want Egyptians to gain their democracy and empower themselves, but the problem is that theyre the good guys in a region chock full of nasties. And the nasties have no issues with using any means possible to attain their goals.

    It is gonna get uglier over there, and I fear a lot of those good guys fighting the good fight are gonna lose their lives, possibly not to the bad guys theyre fighting, but to their “allies” fighting alongside them

  3. DITTO, Val.

    jsb –

    We’re all hoping it turns out as you’re hoping in Egypt, but the socialist/communist groups interloping over there right now have a lot of money backing them (see: Soros). As we saw in WWII the Muslim extremists allied themselves with the Nazis. The MB does some of its ‘best work’ behind the scenes.

    As you see in circumstances such as this, and Cuba 1950s, as soon as the top dog government falls those with their true heart in real democratic ‘revolution’ are usually the ones they immediately turn on and eliminate. What makes this a very precarious situation in Egypt is the people you’re talking about don’t appear, outwardly, to have a leader they plan to back that will promote the sort of government you say they hope to move into. As I have said in the last couple weeks, the only name that has been a ‘stand-out’ is that of a former UN flunky who has been deep under the sheets in bed with Iran … and oddly ‘invisible’ for the last week over there.

  4. Ditto Val,

    Unfortunately jsb is too fixed in his naive views of the Middle East. I sincerely hope for the sake of all that he’s right.

    Unfortunately the last 40+ years of history in the Middle East points in the total opposite direction in an area that is full of turmoil and instability where the fanatic Islamic hardliners full of hate towards the State of Israel keep gaining ground.

    And I don’t care what anyone says, you cannot ignore that history.

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