The New Republic Daily
Report
02/01/11
U.S. Support is Critical in Egypt's Struggle for Democracy—Yet President Obama is Equivocating Leon Wieseltier
Item: “In recounting Saturday’s deliberations,
[administration officials] said Mr. Obama was acutely conscious of avoiding any
perception that the United States was once again quietly engineering the ouster
of a major Middle East leader. … ‘He said several times that the outcome has to
be decided by the Egyptian people, and the U.S. cannot be in a position of
dictating events.’”—David E. Sanger and Helene Cooper, The New York
Times, January 30.
Item: “It is better for President Obama not to appear that he is the last one to say to President Mubarak “It’s time for you to go.’” —Mohammed ElBaradei, Cairo, January 30.
President Obama’s light and somewhat mysterious touch during the crisis in Egypt is both easy and hard to understand. Easy, because the course of the rebellion is still maddeningly obscure, and he must be careful; and hard, because the historical sense that he is bringing to the American role in this crisis is only partially accurate and is misplaced. The precedents that Obama has in mind seem to be the recent one of the invasion of Iraq and the distant one of the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran (a historical memory that figured prominently in the discussion of his lukewarm reception of the Iranian uprising in 2009)—precedents that inhibit a vigorous new American policy, and confer upon the United States a previous guilt that needs to be expiated by some sort of abstention from the fall of Mubarak, a prior disqualification from positive historical action. The president’s experience of the past two years—especially of Iran’s militant rejection of his “extended hand”—does not appear to have rattled the assumption that he held when he came into office, which is that the United States has behaved villainously in the Arab world and so must now behave penitently, or at least in a way that will not repeat a certain paradigm. ”
Continue reading "U.S. Support is Critical in Egypt's Struggle for Democracy..."
The Creative, Unsound Reasoning and Blatant Politics of the Florida Ruling on Health Care Reform Jonathan Cohn
Lessons From 2005, the Last Time the U.S. Faced a Democratization Crisis in Egypt Eli Lake
02/01/11
U.S. Support is Critical in Egypt's Struggle for Democracy—Yet President Obama is Equivocating Leon Wieseltier
Item: “In recounting Saturday’s deliberations,
[administration officials] said Mr. Obama was acutely conscious of avoiding any
perception that the United States was once again quietly engineering the ouster
of a major Middle East leader. … ‘He said several times that the outcome has to
be decided by the Egyptian people, and the U.S. cannot be in a position of
dictating events.’”—David E. Sanger and Helene Cooper, The New York
Times, January 30.Item: “It is better for President Obama not to appear that he is the last one to say to President Mubarak “It’s time for you to go.’” —Mohammed ElBaradei, Cairo, January 30.
President Obama’s light and somewhat mysterious touch during the crisis in Egypt is both easy and hard to understand. Easy, because the course of the rebellion is still maddeningly obscure, and he must be careful; and hard, because the historical sense that he is bringing to the American role in this crisis is only partially accurate and is misplaced. The precedents that Obama has in mind seem to be the recent one of the invasion of Iraq and the distant one of the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran (a historical memory that figured prominently in the discussion of his lukewarm reception of the Iranian uprising in 2009)—precedents that inhibit a vigorous new American policy, and confer upon the United States a previous guilt that needs to be expiated by some sort of abstention from the fall of Mubarak, a prior disqualification from positive historical action. The president’s experience of the past two years—especially of Iran’s militant rejection of his “extended hand”—does not appear to have rattled the assumption that he held when he came into office, which is that the United States has behaved villainously in the Arab world and so must now behave penitently, or at least in a way that will not repeat a certain paradigm. ”
Continue reading "U.S. Support is Critical in Egypt's Struggle for Democracy..."
The Creative, Unsound Reasoning and Blatant Politics of the Florida Ruling on Health Care Reform Jonathan Cohn
Lessons From 2005, the Last Time the U.S. Faced a Democratization Crisis in Egypt Eli Lake
