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Egypt: What a Day
It’s been described as the most complicated chess match ever played. The behind-the-scenes maneuverings must have been something. What seemed like the end of the 30-year regime of Hosni Mubarak in the morning, turned instead into a confusing, meandering speech that left uncertainty- and the regime still reigning.
Even President Obama seemed to think something was up at a noon when he told a crowd in Michigan that “we are witnessing history unfolding.” CIA chief, Leon Panetta, told a congressional hearing it appeared Mubarak was on his way out. But it turned out he was relying on news reports not actual intelligence.
Not that those news reports were without foundation. From the Washington Post:
Crowds had thundered their approval when Gen. Hassan al-Roueini, military commander for the Cairo region, strode into the square and declared: “All your demands will be met today.”
Anticipation soared even higher when Egypt’s supreme military council announced that it had convened an emergency session – in their commander-in-chief’s absence. In a statement, the military chiefs pledged “support for the legitimate demands of the people” and also “to oversee their interests and security.”
And five hours later, Mubarak gave his speech.
The Egyptian Ambassador to the United States, Sameh Shouhkry, says definitively that Mubarak has transferred all authority to his Vice President. Apparently that leaves Mubarak as some kind of paternal figurehead. And the protestors are livid.
Friday may tell the tale. It appears the Egyptian Generals, for now, have sided with the regime. And what of the soldiers, who after all, are taken from the ranks of the citizenry; will they fire on angry protestors if they decide to charge the Presidential compound? Will the soldiers obey the orders of their officers? Has the regime deliberately provoked the protestors in an effort to clamp down and declare it is acting in the interests of public order?
Lives and liberty will be on the line Friday in the streets of Cairo.
The Tiny Little World of Washington Insiders
I saw this ridiculous headline today on WashingtonPost.com- What does the nonstop coverage of uprising mean for the economic message that Obama was hoping to push this week?
The Post’s Chris Cillizza then pontificates in front of a camera for 1 minute and 24 seconds about how non-stop coverage of events in Egypt is cutting into the President’s latest message on economic recovery.
So let’s get this straight. A million Egyptians take to the streets; one of, if not the most important nation in the Middle East is teetering on the brink of revolution; the implications affect everything from the war on terrorism to the global economy; peace and stability in one of the most volatile regions on Earth is at stake—and the inside-the-beltway sages wonder what all this means for a White House economic public relations campaign that might have to be postponed for a few days?
It’s times like this when the insular, self-involved, day-to-day views of Washington insider-types clash head on with the long view of world history. We are at a critical juncture; a time we will look back on a generation from now to help us understand how the world may have forever changed on one February day in the year 2011.
No one will remember who Chris Cillizza was. If they don’t play their cards just right there may not even be a Washington Post. Certainly no one will remember this was the week President Obama had planned to push an economic message.
So, Mr. President—please don’t hesitate to postpone your visit to some factory in Peoria where you would have donned protective eye-wear while posing in front of some machine that makes solar panels—and do concentrate all your efforts on our planet, the substantive changes that may be needed in recalibrating American foreign policy for the foreseeable future, and protecting America’s and the world’s long-term interests.
I guarantee you the cameras and microphones will dutifully record every moment of your new economic message next week.
Egypt, Winter and the Super Bowl
(Clockwise) Hosni Mubarak, Tear Canisters made in the USA, Last week in Washington, Super Bowl stripper shortage
I guess these are three main news stories we’re all talking about this week but try as I might, there’s just no way to connect them all.
Egypt
I saw the first commentary today stating that Barack Obama will be remembered as the American President who lost Egypt. I never knew we owned them. And if so, he’s had plenty of help from his predecessors. U.S. foreign policy has always been only partly about the protection of human rights and democracy. There’s that pesky thing known as “national security considerations.” Hosni Mubarak is not the first “strongman” we’ve backed in the name of stability.
And while democracy is always a worthwhile goal, the world is more complicated than that. Sometimes nations (or entities) elect leaders who go directly against our national security interests (see Palestine and Lebanon). But in the case of Egypt it does appear that there is a reasonable alternative to Mubarak in the form of pro-democracy activist and Nobel laureate, Mohamed ElBaradei. He told ABC News over the weekend that the U.S. imploring Mubarak to suddenly implement democratic reforms after three decades of dictatorship did not exactly win the U.S. any friends last week.
Nor have the tear-gas canisters marked “Made in the USA.” Who knew the only thing not made in China these days were tear-gas canisters?
Winter
I am apparently the only resident of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area last week that did not a) lose power or b) get stuck in a traffic jam. But that’s only because I live a block from the Verizon Center and I think I’m on their electrical grid. And I don’t own a car, which makes me happy each and every day.
I kept track of the craziness though. I clearly remember the tweet some poor woman sent to the Washington Post around 11:35pm the night of the snow/ice storm as she sat helpless on the GW Parkway: “Help. Pregnant and STARVING.”
I have numerous friends who just got their power back this past weekend, leading me to wonder if PEPCO might also be the main power company in Iraq because the parallels are eerie. Except here there’s no active combat and no one’s bombed our infrastructure.
Super Bowl
Parking passes for the NFL title game in Dallas this weekend are selling on E-bay for $1,000. They’re contemplating putting in 15,000 new seats to an already new stadium so the NFL can stuff as many humans as possible into the venue. In some of those additional seats, you can’t see the giant scoreboard which is quite an accomplishment since that scoreboard is described as being half the size of North America. From the other extra seats you can see the scoreboard but can’t see the field.
And there’s reportedly a stripper shortage in Dallas right now—the city is short of the preferred 5-1 visitor-to-stripper ratio. Super Bowl veterans point out that the out-of-state strippers don’t usually get into town until Thursday when the rest of the bigwigs arrive so there shouldn’t be any cause for concern.
Garcia Media Life 
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