The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Egypt: ‘Attaboy, Mubarak’?

Posted on | January 29, 2011 | 38 Comments

“The position of the government of the United States of America should never be to say to the side that’s using batons on demonstrators, ‘attaboy.’”
– Jim Geraghty, National Review

Oh, I don’t know, Jim. When it came to student protesters in Berkeley and rioters in Watts, wasn’t Ronald Reagan’s election as California governor basically a result of the voters saying “attaboy”?

Grant that Hosni Mubarak isn’t UC President Clark Kerr and that Egyptians in 2011 have grievances more serious than did the residents of Watts in 1965. Still, the question isn’t merely who is wielding batons, but against whom the batons are being wielded.

I remember seeing the Denver police in riot gear at the Democratic convention in 2008 and thinking, “Man, I hope the anarchist scum try to start trouble with these guys.”

So if I didn’t mind the Denver police putting some well-deserved whup-ass on smelly American peaceniks, why should I object to Cairo police putting some whup-ass on the Muslim Brotherhood?

Because he’s a member of Congress, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Awesome) can’t put in quite such blunt terms:

Though many will be tempted to superficially interpret the Egyptian demonstrations as an uprising for populist democracy, they must recall how such similar initial views of the 1979 Iranian Revolution were belied by the mullahs’ radical jackbooted murderers, who remain bent upon grasping regional hegemony and nuclear weaponry.

American idealism about democracy and free speech and peaceable assembly doesn’t necessarily match the situation on the ground in Cairo and, in the absence of knowledge about what a post-Mubarak Egypt would look like, we ought not let our enthusiasm outrun the facts. As it is, the facts don’t look good for Mubarak:

Egypt was engulfed in a fifth day of protests on Saturday but an attempt by President Hosni Mubarak to salvage his 30-year rule by firing his cabinet and calling out the army appeared to backfire as troops and demonstrators fraternized and called for the president himself to resign. . . .
The feared security police had largely withdrawn from central Cairo to take up positions around the presidential palace . . .
Following Mr. Mubarak’s demand in his late-night speech, the Egyptian cabinet officially resigned on Saturday. But there was no sign of letup in the tumult. Reports from morgues and hospitals suggested that at least 50 people had been killed so far.

UPDATE: A former adviser to the Obama administration argues that the Muslim Brotherhood “should not be seen as inevitably our enemy” — which is what you’d expect an Obama adviser to say, I suppose — but Thomas Joscelyn isn’t buying it:

Hosni Mubarak’s regime is no friend of freedom, even though it is certainly an ally against al Qaeda.
In all likelihood, an Egypt dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood (if that is how the turmoil plays out) would be neither.

And not to justify the Zeitgeist conspiracy-mongers murmuring about “international bankers,” but Larry Kudlow suggests that Ben Bernanke’s “quantitative easing” policy at the Fed might be implicated in the Egyptian unrest:

Commodities are priced in dollars, and the Fed has been overproducing dollars for more than two years. Consequently, emerging markets throughout the world — and the food sector in particular — are suffering from rising inflation.

UPDATE II: President Obama’s official remarks last night:

The speech left “lots of people complaining bitterly that [Obama] had endorsed Mubarak’s grim struggle to hold on to power, missed an historic opportunity, and risked sparking a wave of anti-Americanism,” says GWU Professor Marc Lynch, adding: “The administration, it seems to me, is trying hard to protect the protestors from an escalation of violent repression, giving Mubarak just enough rope to hang himself, while carefully preparing to ensure that a transition will go in the direction of a more democratic successor.”

Well, Professor Lynch is an expert and I am not, but I would say that in general, previous optimism about the Obama administration has inevitably led to disappointment. Even in a situation like this — where the U.S. seems confronted by a choice between “bad” and “worse” — my hunch is that whatever Obama does will turn out to be disastrous.

UPDATE III: Carolyn Glick of the Jerusalem Post is not sanguine about what the Egyptian unrest means for Israel. Her pessimism points toward the basic problem with those who talk hopefully about “Mideast peace,” namely the fact that the Arab/Muslim world has been steeped in anti-Israel hatred for so long that Israel’s choices come down to either fighting against radicals or negotiating with “moderates” who don’t really represent anyone.

PREVIOUSLY:

Bookmark and Share
Category: Egypt

Comments

  • Joe

    The Muslim Brotherhood is definitely not our friends. Unless you consider it friendly to turn Egypt into an Islamic Calphanite State under Sharia Law. Still, it is a force in Egypt and will have to be dealt with. Just like Nassar was a force and had to be dealt with.

    That said, Mumbarak has over stayed his welcome. Anyone paying attention in Egypt have known this for a very long time. Trying to shore up this guy would be a mistake. The goal for the United States is help a peaceful transition of power.

  • Pingback: Will this be the ultimate Arthur/Carter Moment? « Da Techguy's Blog

  • Joe

    Off topic but I watched Collapse last night on Netflix. It is about Michael Ruppert, a conspiracy theoryPeak Oil progressive speaker. Cynthia McKinney loves him to give you an idea where he is coming from.

    But he makes the point that the government knows peak oil is coming, which is why we went into Iraq, etc., etc. That all government systems are doomed to failure due to the eventual collaspe of oil (which we have no replacement for). That things will get very bad. And that eventually the replacement system will be sustainable. Think of him as a left wing Glenn Beck. But crazy (I do not think Glenn is crazy).

    We will eventually have a peak oil moment. Whether that is now or fifty years from now remains to be seen. But there will come a point that it no longer makes economic sense to use oil as our primary energy source. And the conspiracy theorists are right, we do not have a short term substitute for it. Still, the catostrophic collapse senerios, are a bit symplistic and dysopian. I am not endorsing these sort of consipracy theories, but with the current unrest in Egypt and the Middle East…I could see how uninformed people could buy into this stuff.

  • Anonymous

    “Peak oil,” my ass. The fact that liberals believe in “peak oil” leads me to the conclusion that Earth’s petroleum resources are effectively infinite.

    Whatever liberals believe, the opposite is almost certainly true.

  • Adobe_Walls

    The Manic Progressive energy policy has long been that if we don’t stop prospecting and drilling for oil we’ll never run out. What this does to our security they care not a fig. O’Sputnik’s and the Manic Progressive’s long term policy is for my grandchildren to be reduced to scraping hides with broken bits of bathroom porcelain to make clothes and shelter. If the Eco wackos have their way those hides will be human.

  • Jackman

    Even granting your peak oil scenario, which I don’t buy, The US could rather easily switch to a coal and natural gas based energy economy withing a decade or so, one that we could supply solely with domestic sources for at least a century. It would cost money to transition…but not so much that the nightmare scenario the peak oilers envision becomes a realistic posibility.

  • Anonymous

    Or we could do the simple thing and build nuke plants. That would give us the electricity to crack hydrogen from seawater, among other things.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

    There will be no “popular democracy” in Egypt. It will be the current authoritarian government, or a totalitarian one. These are dangerous days to have the amateurs in charge of foreign policy.

    When Joe Biden is your “go-to guy,” pray for divine intervention.

    ~~~~~~~~

    “Peak oil” conspiracy theory is the product of insanity. In 1970, known oil reserves were projected to run out in 30 years, assuming the then-current rate of growth of demand. Demand actually exceeded the estimates by more than double, and known reserves are now several times what they were 30 years ago.

    Between known and undiscovered deposits, and the extractable oil from shale and tar sands, we’ll have plenty of oil until the next technological breakthrough. The only question is how much will it cost.

  • Pingback: Right Wing Extremists: January 29, 2011 | REPUBLICAN REDEFINED

  • Bob Belvedere

    Quoted from and Linked to at:
    Egypt: The Dark Side Of The Loons

  • http://twitter.com/dustbury Charles G Hill

    For at least a hundred years, there’s only been about 10 years’ worth of oil left.

    Merkin’s Maxim: “When in doubt, predict that the trend will continue.”

  • CountVikula

    Interesting video at 45 seconds. KT MacFarlane was saying the dominos could tip either way, but let’s give freedom a chance.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThvBJMzmSZI&feature=player_embedded

  • http://www.facebook.com/duncan.mcfarlane3 Duncan McFarlane

    Well you’re believing what you want to believe then. Whatever the state of the world’s oil reserves 1) they are not infinite and 2) we can’t afford to use all the remaining reserves because of the amount of flooding and spread of deserts that the resulting climate change would cause

  • http://www.facebook.com/duncan.mcfarlane3 Duncan McFarlane

    Anyone claiming environmentalists want people to return to the stone age and skin other people has no leg to stand on when calling anyone else “wacko”

  • http://www.facebook.com/duncan.mcfarlane3 Duncan McFarlane

    There is no guaranteeing what the new governmen of Egypt will be whatever the US government does.

    However we know there are lots of opponents of Mubarak who are not members of the Muslim Brotherhood – including El Baradei, most of the students who began the protests, the women protesters wearing neither veils nor headscarves (some in western dress), socialists, liberals and trade unionists and even nationalists and conservatives who are sick of living under a corrupt, torturing dictator.

    We also know that the US government backed the Shah’s regime right up to the last moment in 1979. President Carter was persuaded into this policy by the right of his party and the right of the Republicans – and the result was that Khomeini and the fundamentalists benefited and siezed power, crushing the liberals and socialists.

    Obama should learn from that and tell Mubarak and the Egyptian military to stand down and allow an orderly transition to democracy, only intervening if any group starts massacring others.
    That will minimise the chances of extremists taking power.

  • Anonymous

    If there were one shred of untainted evidence to support the idea of man causing the climate change, you might have a point.

  • Anonymous

    In a life time of idiotic pronouncements, this is your best. Think of this, genius, the USA produced more oil than any nation on Earth from the 1880′s to the 1960′s and then Texas and Oklahoma stopped pumping as much oil and the US became a net importer. Ever wonder why that is?

    Maybe, ’cause all the easy oil is too hard to get? What makes a journalist think all the geolgists are wrong, except silly politics?

  • Anonymous

    Except extracting sweet light crude from tar sands and shale is basically impossible and prohibitively expensive, but, dude, you keep your love for oil even after it hits 200 dollars/barrel.

  • Adobe_Walls

    No one who actually believes that we are powerful enough to overthrow nature doesn’t have a leg to stand on when denying being a wacko. Those who benefits financially whether through research grants or other Govt. subsidy or trading scraps of paper puported to represent some ones lact of activity are frauds and thieves. The cult of climate change hysteria is just that a wacko cult.
    From your name/link it appears you live in England and like to visit museums. After your island succumbs to the Caliphate due to the moonbattery at some point we shall have to drive out the ummah and then I’m sure England will make a wonderful Theme Park.

  • Pingback: Egyptian Uprising: Latest Updates : The Other McCain

  • Joe

    I am not a chicken little about “peak oil.” But there will reach a point where there are better alternatives to oil. That will be driven by economics and the cost of extraction/cost of production. Just like we reached a point where using electricity for lighting made more sense than whale oil. My guess is we will remain a predominately oil engery based society for about fifty years more. But hey, I only watched that piece of crap movie because they did not have Zietgeist. You are the one turning us onto this conspiracy stuff. I wanted to see what lefties are watching.

  • Joe

    Becareful, that sort of hate speech will trigger the next serial killer to attack.

  • Adobe_Walls

    I don’t know how much a barrel of oil cost in 1970 but a gallon of gas cost about 27 cents. As the easy reserves tapped out foreign oil became cheaper. Keep in mind until the end of the sixties foreign oil companies pumping oil overseas had names like Esso. After oil prices went up the technology, which was way behind began to catch-up. Unless we subsidize electric cars in Europe (India and China aren’t stupid enough to give up oil) gas won’t go that cheap again, but it doesn’t have to, we have even more methane than oil and centuries worth of coal.

  • http://www.facebook.com/duncan.mcfarlane3 Duncan McFarlane

    the people benefitting financially are the oil firms like Exxon Mobil – and they benefit from denying climate change – which they do through front groups like the George C Marshall Institute which they fund as it produces it’s phony petition signed supposedly by “31,000 scientists” most of whom are neither scientists nor even real people and include “Dr. Michael J. Fox’ , who by the way, is not an existing climate scientist.
    Their attached “scientific paper”, when it was first produced in the 90s, claimed to have been published in the journal of the National Academy of Science – it hadn’t been and the Academy has disowned it, as the “research paper” is written by people who are not climate scientists but a vet, a doctor, an electrician and some chemists.

  • Adobe_Walls

    So the fact that the women protesting aren’t wearing head scarves impresses you, they will be. All of them. The radical Islamists will take control of Egypt unless the military establishes another dictatorship and purges the MB elements within itself. The radicals have time, trends and popular opinion on their side. And they’ll not do us the favor of taking our embassy.

  • Adobe_Walls

    One of the problems with tapping Canadian oil sands is they are concerned with running out of pipe line capacity to transport this product that can’t be extracted.
    http://www.neb.gc.ca/clf-nsi/rnrgynfmtn/nrgyrprt/lsnd/pprtntsndchllngs20152006/qapprtntsndchllngs20152006-eng.html
    Don’t y’all have google out where you live?

  • Anonymous

    Sure do. We have an understanding of this too: “light/heavy oil price” You might want to look it up, especially within the context of what I said. Chemistry, as well geology, baffles you?

  • Anonymous

    Look, believe what you want, since reality has nothing to do it, OR start here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbert_peak_theory#Criticism and try to learn something.

    Before you do that, ask yourself how it is “cheaper” for oil to be transported with oil from Saudi Arabia to Dallas than from Dallas to Dallas. Must be some cheap damn oil

  • CountVikula

    Joe,

    You cannot even begin to fathom the amount of oil we’ve just begin pumping out of the ground off the coast of West Africa this past December. And we have a few other massive fields there we haven’t tapped but are hugely promising. There is so much freaking oil it’s hard to contemplate. The trick is finding it, and then getting it out of the ocean floor. We have some slick new hydrocarbon scanning technologies that are making this much easier. Conspiracy theorists are dead wrong. Oil is being driven up by speculators right now. USD price per barrel should be about $75 right now.

  • Pingback: Morning News/Views 1-30-11 @ Maggie’s Notebook | Maggie's Notebook

  • Pingback: Freedom is the Answer

  • Anonymous

    McCain, I know to you all Muslims are the nail and you are the hammer, but you might be interested to know the Egyptian Brotherhood hates Al Queda almost as much as you do. Or, at least that’s what they teach at West Point
    http://www.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/events/CTCAQ.pdf

  • Pingback: ‘Regime Change’ in Egypt? : The Other McCain

  • http://www.facebook.com/duncan.mcfarlane3 Duncan McFarlane

    There’s a democratically elected Islamic Party which has governed Turkey for the past 8 years and hasn’t become extremist. Not all Islamic parties are the Taliban in government – and Islamic parties in the Middle East do not get on with jihadist terrorist groups or Al Qa’ida (read e.g Professor Fawaza Gerges book ‘The Far Enemy’ on this – the Jihadists groups treat the Muslim Brotherhood and other parties trying to get power through the ballot box as collaborators and target them – Bin Laden’s number two is Zawahiri – and Egyptian – and he and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood hate one another with a passion).. Hamas’ armed wing have wiped out Al Qa’ida llied groups in the Gaza strip and even the Afghan Taliban want nothing to do with Al Qa’ida after they brought a US invasion down on their heads.

    23% of American voters are Christian evangelicals according to Pew polling – and they swung the 2004 election for Bush. So there’s as much chance of the US getting taken over by Christian Fundamentalists as of Egypt getting taken over by Islamic ones.

  • Pingback: Your Daily Egyptian Update : The Other McCain

  • Pingback: Army Chief Lt. Gen. Sami Enan Likely Mubarak Successor, Says French Report UPDATE: Obama Withdraws U.S. Support for Mubarak; Speech Expected : The Other McCain

  • Pingback: Massive New Protests in Egypt : The Other McCain

  • Pingback: El-Baradei: CNN’s Choice, Not Egypt’s : The Other McCain

Performance Optimization WordPress Plugins by W3 EDGE