Egyptian street: Forget the 'Palestinians,' bring us democracy
This is from an article by al-Reuters discussing Egyptian disappointment at President Obama's failure to follow through on his commitments in Cairo 17 months ago. "I personally had higher expectations for change" after the 2009 speech, said Cairo lawyer Hatem Khalil. "It's ignorant to believe Obama will solve the Palestinian case... I also agree that if the U.S. takes out all its military from Iraq in one phase the country will collapse -- but I think that with Egypt, more needs to be done."If I were an Egyptian, I would look at President Mubarak's health as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get out from under the Pharaoh. And if I missed that opportunity because Obama abandoned me, I'd be pretty upset at the United States for a long time to come.
Obama's Jakarta speech emphasized democracy and Indonesia's progress in bridging racial and religious divides, but Cairo University politics professor Hassan Nafaa said Arab states had moved away from democratic reform since the Bush administration.
Nafaa said Obama did not mention the recent record of Arab governments on political reform though his upbeat remarks about Indonesia's vibrant democracy were seen as a veiled reference to autocratic Muslim countries to emulate the Asian country.
In Egypt, a decades-old state of emergency remains in force and opposition groups say they are muzzled and their activities curtailed. President Hosni Mubarak, 82, has not yet said if he will seek a sixth six-year term in office next year.
"We knew a while ago that Obama does not want to pressure the Middle East states that are friends with the United States," Nafaa said.
"And this is because he fully realizes he has economic and political interests with those states and pressuring them will not lead to any outcome, as previous pressure from former President George Bush failed to bring any change."
Bush was right on this one. At least under his watch, the United States was taking a moral position.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, democracy, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:50 PM
1 Comments:
Why should the Egyptians (or anyone, for that matter) be mad at the U.S. for years to come?
President Obama is EXACTLY what the Euro left and the Middle Easterners have been chanting for for decades!
He is not a cowboy.
He undermines U.S. achievement in feeding the world, past, present (did you see the warnings on food supply? who do you think will be really really hungry?), and future.
He will not interfere when one group slaughters another, because he agrees with the people in the world who think that is imperialism (ref: Odinga in Kenya).
And on and on. I lived in Germany in the '70s and the protesters were chanting for this even then. So the U.S. voters gave the internationals what they wanted. So now they need to stop complaining.
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