Friday, January 28, 2011

Obama Speech

Not much there. More stuff about safety, said that he had talked with Mubarak about this, wants people to work together for reform, etc.  But nothing substantial.

It might be that he can't really do much more than that. If the Americans get too involved, groups within Egypt will denounce their counterparts as being American catspaws. (That happened in Iran, even though the Americans were distant-at-best during that crisis.)

What was really missing was an acknowledgment that this is not just about Egypt. Just a few days ago, this was in Tunisia. Then Algeria. Now Egypt. It's starting to move into Yemen, and the Syrians are already starting to get nervous. This is a much broader uprising than is being acknowledged. If they don't recognize that and address it publicly, things are only going to become more extreme as time goes on. Ignoring it won't make it go away.

1 comment:

  1. Y'know, though, unlike Iran's current government (as far as I know), Mubarak's government gets $2 billion a year in US "aid." (That's mostly a subsidy to US corporations, of course, hence the quote marks.) So no one in Egypt has any doubt that Mubarak is an American catspaw.

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