Egypt Inflamed, Obama Unmasked

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made fools of the U.S. pundit and political classes yesterday, who had predicted the aging strongman was going to announce he was stepping down in a scheduled speech.

Instead, Mubarak refused to quit, and the world now waits to see if today's protests will escalate into something more akin to civil war.

Mubarak has left the protest-filled capitol and is now thought to be in his home in the resort town of Sharem a-Sheikh, a resort town on the Red Sea.

Throughout the crisis, the world has looked to America to see how the world's only remaining superpower would react. A trio of news stories yesterday showed how incompetent our Administration really is, showing they are incapable of leadership.

Our President seems to be taking orders from foreign leaders, setting up a situation where he was played as a patsy.
The Director of the CIA was made to look ill-informed, where he provided information not form his agency, but from the media.
And of course, our Director of National Intelligence showed his incompetence.

The whole situation is hysterical... for our nation's enemies. The Obama Administration has been unmasked as being simply inept, across the board. They are weak, vacillating, uninformed and incapable of command.

Good marketing slogans and charisma don't equate to leadership.

It is going to be a long two years until January 2013.

Update: Mubarak has resigned, and handed power to the military.

Let us all hope that there is an orderly and peaceful transition.

MIKE NOTES: Dr. George Friedman, head of Stratfor, the premier private intelligence source, believes that Mubarak did not voluntarily step down but was deposed in a "bloodless military coup." According to Dr. Friedman, the Egyptian military was involved in a "weeks long tussle with Mubarak who refused to leave." After the speech where Mubarak announced his intention to stay in power, the military took matters into their own hands and removed him the next morning. Dr. Friedman believes Mubarak will end up in Saudi Arabia where he has many friends. Dr. Friedman sees the beneficiaries of the Egyptian unrest being Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, who have been working for just this opportunity for the last 60 years, and who, he believes, will not waste it. If Dr. Friedman is correct--and Stratfor has an excellent record--Mr. Obama had virtually no influence on the situation, other than to diminish America's stature in the region even further. The word around the region--even with our allies--is that America under Barack Obama is a harmless enemy and a fickle and treacherous friend. If this is an example of "winning the future," it's a future in which we will likely want no part.

For information on the effectiveness of our intelligence officials and diplomats, be sure to check out Quick Takes this Thursday, Feb. 17.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:58 AM

Comments

1 Can we get Vladimir Putin to run things here until then? We'd be better off.

Posted by: ViolentIndifference at February 11, 2011 12:52 PM (rz915)

2 Jack Wiley Dithers reports that Hosne Mubarak intentionally misled the Cairo CIA station chief on Thursday, as payback for being thrown under the bus by the White House. Seeing this maneuver succeed beyond his imagination; he had a good laugh with close advisors, a nice glass of cognac, checked the balance on his Swiss bank account, and decided he could retire happy after all.

http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com
"Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive"

Posted by: LibertyAtStake at February 11, 2011 01:01 PM (A5zyE)

3 The real problem is the Muslim Brotherhood. If they gain power we are facing a second Iran--one that can control the Suez as well as attack Israel. The model here is probably less like Iran and more like Turkey--a creeping religious radicalism.

Posted by: iconoclast at February 11, 2011 01:24 PM (Gv8nu)

4 The CIA is renowned for being ill-informed. Just in the last 20 years they missed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the invasion of Kuwait,09/11, WMD in Iraq, and now Egypt. They're incompetent clowns and should be replaced by DIA and miltary intelligence, or hell, even the Tuscaloosa PD.

Posted by: Will Butler at February 11, 2011 07:18 PM (J72gA)

5 Iconoclast,

The Muslim Brotherhood tries, they'll find a lot of opposition in the Egyptian military. The Egyptian military stands in opposition to tyranny because of their reputation. While the Egyptian army etc. haven't won a war, they acquitted themselves well in their last war, gave the vaunted Libyan army a good thrashing, and have a reputation for honor among the Egyptian people. A good part of the reputation earned by the Egyptian military lies in how they have performed in the eyes of the American military, and that is damn well indeed.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not invincible. I suspect they know this and will do nothing that lessen their chance of gaining effective power. So I'm not expecting a violent uprising, but a quiet take over, if indeed the MB makes an open grab for power.

Egypt is not Iran, entirely different in fact. The military is a trusted, even lauded institution, and Islam has no major leadership figure ready and waiting to take over and make Egypt an Islamist state. Be patient, and don't be so eager to forecast doom.

Posted by: Alan Kellogg at February 12, 2011 02:31 AM (Y+78Z)

6 It will be interesting to see if the military uses this interim period to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood. I suppose a military dictatorship is not all bad.

Posted by: Professor Hale at February 14, 2011 11:58 AM (m7EhJ)

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