Juan Cole took the gloves off this morning and dug deep to analyze the reasons why seven pro-democracy activists died last night in Tahrir Square, Cairo. Many more will no doubt follow, as Mubarak and Egypt’s elites have no intention of allowing Egypt to become a representative democracy any more than Israeli PM Netanyahu intends to allow a Palestinian state to come into existence. Following Netanyahu, yesterday Mubarak gave Obama the bird, apparently knowing that he would wimp out in any confrontation.
To be sure, it is not Obama’s fault that the American presidency has become so weak and submissive toward Israel, a pattern Egypt is now following. It has almost become a tradition that goes back at least to Clinton when was browbeaten by Netanyahu in the oval office during his first term.
When Wikileaks published its expose of the phony Israeli-Palestinian peace process a few weeks ago, it merely repeated what skeptics like Cole knew all along.
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
– Mark Twain
As I settled in this afternoon awaiting a coming ice storm (the first of these just missed us last night) and curious about what’s going on in Egypt where around 2 million people were demonstrating today for Hosni Mubarak’s resignation (in a speech this afternoon he said he would not run for reelection and would be out of office by the Fall… as you might guess, this does not seem good enough for the demonstrators who want him out now) I wondered what was happening on C-Span 2.
I thought I’d watch the Senate debate the FAA Funding Bill and what do you think happened? Senate Republicans have attempted to repeal last year’s sweeping health care law via an amendment to a FAA funding, proposed by the beloved Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Not since the Earth’s creation some 6000+ years ago, when men and dinosaurs peaceably shared the world, have I heard such idiocy.
I’m following this on twitter, and since I have access to a slightly louder megaphone than some, let’s take a second at least to remember that the fate of a nation hangs in the balance right now. At least we can pay attention if nothing else.
Lots of stories flying:
– It appears the government has taken down the Internet in Egypt. This is a country of 80M, a $500B economy, #26 in the world. That’s a pretty big deal.
– claims that the government is spreading flammable liquids in potential protest areas of Cairo. If true that would be a new low in gruesome counter-protest violence.
– claims that the regular Police have left Cairo and fears that this means the Army will move in
Also, as I noted in Quick hits, Joe Biden put himself on the wrong side of history with a quote I truly hope haunts him for a long time. Really wasn’t expecting that Stephen Harper would prove a better democrat than the Obama admin.
Are you following this? What are you hearing? What do you believe?
Update: Something of a Tiananmen square moment in this video about 1:30 in. Such amazing courage.
STATE BLOGS
