Juan Cole sure is grumpy. I think he said more than one thing that you are not allowed to say and still remain in polite society. But I understand his frustration. On the other hand, when have we ever had a better lesson, that reached a bigger domestic audience, about the true costs of our policies in the Middle East? Isn’t that the cause for some optimism?
I think it is.
People are learning something. They are learning something that our elites spend billions to keep them from knowing or understanding.
And, our government, while not having any great choices, is doing a decent job of finessing this. Mubarak may have thumbed his nose at us yesterday, but he did agree not to run for reelection. He son has been sidelined. All is not lost. It’s too early for despondency.
I’m not saying that Juan should be chipper, but he could cheer up a little.
I’m not sure if I believe the analysis that says Obama’s being “humiliated” by an act of desperation on the part of Mubarak when Obama privately and publicly rejected his “concessions” as inadequate; or if Mubarak is still in power because Obama has told him to stay until September (or not told him specifically to leave).
I’m leaning towards the latter, and feel that if Obama told him to step down now, he would.
I think the administration wants to slow things down a bit, and they don’t want to turn too hard on Mubarak (lest they spook other autocratic allies). No one wants chaos in Egypt, and an orderly process would take some pressure off in places like Jordan. Unfortunately, it’s usually impossible to manage in revolutionary times.
Ultimately I agree with that, especially with regard to our other allies. Unfortunately it also doesn’t look too good for America’s future with a new Egypt when we’re continuing to back him with weak-kneed statements.
I think he’s given Mubarak plenty of time for a “graceful” exit. Now is the time to dump him completely, both publicly and privately. Unless, of course, that’s not what he really wants (and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I do not when it comes to foreign policy; I wouldn’t give any American president that benefit).
A more polite version of the reality from Chomsky on Democracy Now:
Chomsky: Why the Mideast Turmoil Is a Direct Threat to the American Empire
“An interview with Noam Chomsky about what this means for the future of the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy in the region.”
http://www.alternet.org/story/149786/chomsky%3A_why_the_mideast_turmoil_is_a_direct_threat_to_the_am
erican_empire
Chomsky doesn’t have responsibility for anything going on in the world. He sits back and talks. Nice work if you can get it.
He thinks and his thoughts are quite deep as far as understanding the Middle East. But in a sense you’re right: like most academics he never ran for president.
I’m of two minds. First of all, I’m a lot more inclined to take Cole at face value, namely because of his experience in the area, ability to speak and read the language, and his track record.
However, I don’t necessarily see “cause for optimism”, since there is no guarantee that we learn the lesson, and no guarantee that our pathetic media delivers that lesson to our domestic audience. For example, NPR’s All Things Considered has been doing their typical “view from nowhere” thing: I had to turn off their coverage, because it’s a whitewash.
I need to read the other article you link to before commenting to much, but Bush’s version of gunpoint democracy has really damaged the chances for democracy in the Middle East. Who in the ME wants Iraq-style “messy democracy”?
And that is not a high threshold any more, is it?
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Juan Cole would be in good company on the Israeli-Palestinian issue and U.S. imperialism.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Juan Cole is not grumpy, he’s serious. ‘Polite society’ never had much to do with any of this anyway. Tomorrow is Friday and we will see what the clerics have to say in the mosques and how the people react when they go back out on to the streets. All the ‘law enforcement’ agencies of the Egyptian government could crack down tonight. Tomorrow may be a whole new chapter. Obama can not be more forceful, he probably doesn’t know where he stands on any of this anyway, the US is totally spooked, Israel will do everything it can to prevent a democratic Egypt which will inevitably be less friendly to their deceit: give me a colony or two more before we can sit down and talk seriously.
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Some excellent expressions about Mubarak and Egypt:
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."A nation that never learned the lesson of Vietnam does not inspire confidence in learning the lesson of the current democratic revolutions in the Middle East.
If Mubarak goes, what will the US position be on Yemen? Jordan? Saudi Arabia? Syria?
And what happens to the US military budget if the Islamic street takes away our enemies?
There are a lot of reasons to be grumpy.
Remember that domestic politics drives foreign policy, not Obama. And the GOP has used national security as the first wedge issue for 65 years.
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Israel
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Last 65 years. The Republicans started using the Red Scare in election campaigns in 1946. And it intensified as Eastern Europe came under the control of Stalin’s USSR, culminating in a panic over Greece and Turkey and the enunciation of the Truman Doctrine in 1947. In this Truman was trying to get ahead of the public fear. Also in 1947, Truman reorganized the US national security apparatus into the form it currently has and essentially created a permanent standing army. This nonetheless did not satisfied the national security peacocks in the Republican Party, most notably Richard M. Nixon.
Israel has been peripheral to the national security debate in the US until the end of the Cold War.
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See my comment in another thread: Conspiracy Theory – Operation Susannah
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."