Obama is about to address Mubarak's earlier announcement. It was scary to watch how Obama has humiliated America's closest ally in the Arab World while snuggling up to the much worse despot in Syria.
American policy in the Middle East is falling apart and all other Arab/Muslim states are taking notice.
Obama's speech is about to begin, I will update this post very soon!
UPDATE: a rather long delay. Perhaps some intense, last minute strategy deliberations in the bowels of the White House? Perhaps Obama is just on a smoke break...
Meanwhile: a Fox News Panel discusses the possibility of El Baradaei being a 'transitional' leader, having already garnered the support of the dominant opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood. Charles Krauthammer correctly recognizes it's a bad idea.
Here's Obama!
Obama says that based on his conversation with Mubarak, the Egyptian president recognizes that a peaceful transformation of his country is necessary.
Obama follows with some wishy-washy statements about 'Universal Values' and about the need for democratic transformation.
Obama says that he believes the Egyptian people should take their destiny in their own hands. All nice and fuzzy in theory, but can Obama point to a recent Middle Eastern example where this ended up going well?
Speech is over. I am disappointed. Obama was very vague and didn't say much new. Didn't shed any light on his conversation with Mubarak. However, the speech itself was very well written and showed cautious optimism, without explicitly taking sides.
No comments:
Post a Comment