As we all sit and watch the absolute horrific chaos that has erupted in Tunisia and Egypt due to the people’s political protests of the continued oppression that they have both had to suffer in their own unique ways, the world has turned it’s gaze to Barack Obama in response for a definitive course of actions – which no one has received as of yet. While so many people are trying to call him out for being WEAK, they just don’t understand that sometimes using TACT is a million times smarter than BRUTE STRENGTH.
This piece is more directed to the layman, than to the political science scholar, because it seems the most frivolous and overzealous demands for Obama to “Protect American values” [i.e. enforcing democracy and supporting a U.S. ally in Egypt's aging Dictator/President Hosni Mubarak] by crafting an armed presence in Egypt to suppress the protesting, for once are NOT coming from his GOP rivals, but from IDIOTS walking the streets who don’t know a DAMN THING about political diplomacy.
To understand WHY Barack Obama has chosen to take a calculated time-out and allow the situation to play itself out in Egypt instead of going in GUNS OUT, one must also understand HOW this situation came to be:
1) Since its inception, Egypt has had to deal with governmental oppression, corruption and increasing levels of poverty in a community with an explosive growth of population.
2) Eqypt, which mirrors Tunisia in many ways, was taken over by President Mubarak after Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated in 1981, in an attack that also wounded Mubarak, leading him to declare Egypt as being in a “State of Emergency” which subsequently has resulted in the suspension and revocation of many Egyptians civil rights [Think U.S.A. after 9/11 with the Patriot Act X 1,000].
3) Mubarak’s National Democratic Party has unfairly dominated elections for 30 years and it’s closest rivals, [the demonized] Muslim Brotherhood, has been BANNED from contesting the NDP as a political party because they just got to damn close for Mubarak’s liking to overthrowing them.
4) Egypt is a country where 100,000 babies are born a MONTH yet unemployment rests at 20% and underemployment is TWICE that – yet money is still being found to build 5-Star hotels, and resorts to cater to the rich.
5) Egypt helps in supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and exposing al-Qaida, which is valuable enough to the U.S. to contribute $1-2$ billion a year in assistance to Egypt.
6) For quite some time Mubarak, 82, had not named a Vice-President, therefore no official successor existed on record, until his son Gamal Mubarak emerged out of nowhere to look like the man for the job. Fearing it would be a father-to-son transition of brutality and oppression, Egyptians got worried. Their fears were later confirmed when posters started to appear that Gamal would be the presidential candidate last fall, which lead to protests.
7) In January, Mubarak ended the speculation and selected shady-a*s Omar Suleiman as his VP – The 74-year old man who also leads the Mukhabarat, Egypt’s deadly secret police. Suleiman’s health is TERRIBLE, and if Mubarak decides to step down before the planned-democratic election in the fall.
And Finally…
Combine the fact that this poor, oppressed and downtrodden country, who sees excessive wealth get continually squandered on the already rich, got to witness Tunisia’s dictator get his a*s exiled due to public protesting, and you now have a group of people who finally found the right moment to declare “enough is enough.”But with all that said, it still has left the U.S. and Barack Obama in a very AWKWARD position. They want to stand up for human rights, democracy, and ethical treatment of human beings worldwide, but at the same time they don’t want to look disloyal to their other Middle-East allies in the face of public dissent, as those allies are their biggest weapons in keeping peace and continuing the crusade on al-Qaida.
Hell, some of Obama’s biggest CRITICS, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, have actually given the White House CREDIT for handling the situation the way they are, and even more AMAZING, Sarah Palin hasn’t said a DAMN THING.
Barack has insisted that Mubarak makes a “peaceful transition to a new government” which was forceful enough to be very clear, but not abrasive enough to do the one thing the U.S.A. has been getting blamed of doing since the end of the cold war: Recklessly inserting themselves in situations that are simply out of their control.
This Is Your Conscience
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