Obama can’t say they didn’t warn him.
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Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
February 10th, 2011 at 7:43 pm
From the link: “The letter attacked the administration’s mind-set: “The choice is not between a stable and predictable but undemocratic Egypt on the one hand, and dangerous instability and extremism on the other. There is now an opportunity to support gradual, responsible democratic reform.”
Nonsense. Of course that’s the choice we face because that’s the nature of Egyptian society.
This is a Muslim majority, middle eastern country, not Czechoslovakia.
The majority of Egyptians don’t want a democracy that recognizes minority rights. Not when 84% of Egyptian Muslims support the death penalty for Muslims who commit apostasy. Islam is a tribal/moral arrangement, one that denies that non-Muslims have any rights at all.
If the army agrees to allow the MB participation in elections, the Muslim Brotherhood’s fanaticism has to eventually win. “in a fight, it’s not the size of the dog that counts, it’s the amount of fight in the dog”…
February 10th, 2011 at 8:12 pm
Reading the article reminded me of a quote by Woodrow Wilson. Before his inauguration, Woodrow Wilson said, “It would be the irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs.” This may be Obama’s fate, too.
February 10th, 2011 at 8:32 pm
LAG: But in Obama’s case it wouldn’t be an irony. He was eager to deal with foreign affairs.
February 11th, 2011 at 1:29 am
Good thing I visited in November, before the revolution…
February 11th, 2011 at 10:48 am
neo, you’re right, of course. NOW I remember the reset button. Wasn’t that his second priority right after jobs?
February 11th, 2011 at 11:23 am
Actually, neo, I offered that last comment partly in jest.
It seems pretty clear to me Obama expected his reset and make-nice apology tours to remove foreign policy concerns from the table. I think his principal expectation from the rest of the world was that they would welcome him whenever he chose to make a vacation stop.
As I recall Democratic criticisms of the Bush administration, it seems to me that it wasn’t just that his actions embroiled the US in actions of which they disapproved. That aspect was compounded by diversion of resources better employed at home.
It seemed inevitable to me that winding down the wars would free up a pot of money in the DOD. I see nothing much to persuade me that not the case.