I spent most of yesterday watching the uprising in Egypt live on Al Jazeera, really the only comprehensive and reliable English language coverage available, and for most Americans, it is only available on the internet.
I was mezmerized.
It's very important, of course, to convince Americans that these kinds of Street Insurrections don't work, and to convince them that they better not try it, no matter how bad things get in this country. Jibbering natives overseas may be able to pull off something like this, but no American should ever think that something like this can work in a civilized country like the Good Ol USA.
From what I've seen of American media on the Egypt Thing, that's been pretty much the universal message: "Don't you get uppity and try this yourself. It will not work."
Back to the coverage; there is anxious anticipation that Mubarak will indeed give up the Pharaoh's Throne in due time, which may be very soon indeed.
And as Egypt falls, attempted American hegemony in the Middle East will fall to pieces. There are uprisings in Jordan too, the Yemen, Lebanon, Algeria, etc. The paranoiacs in Israel must be shitting bricks.
And they've got nukes.
This is no time for popcorn.
Ché,
ReplyDeleteHope all is well --
Tunisia and now Egypt. I agree, this will continue. I wish the people of the Middle East the best of luck, and hope they can keep their revolution and not lose it to hucksters and conmen. I hope, especially, they don't lose it to theocrats (as was the case in Iran). Though if that's what the people in the Middle East really want, it's their call, obviously. Not ours.
It was never was ours, of course.
It would be an amazing bi-product of this if we got out of the business of propping up dictators around the world, for a change. If we finally learned that lesson. Totally and completely withdraw from the business. That would be the humane, sane and logical thing to do, even from a "realist" POV. Because we're usually on the wrong side of history, and the people don't forget that. Their enmity stays strong for generations.
Side with real democracies, and we're generally going to be on the right side of things, and that's worth its weight in gold.
And then maybe we can try it here.
:>)
Cu-hool,
ReplyDeleteHope you're doing OK. I know too many people who've been under the weather this winter. I'm one of them. Hope you're not.
Apart from that, I've been juggling too many things to be paying close enough attention to things in Egypt to have any more than the most superficial observations. It seems clear the American overlords are actually pulling a lot of the strings of the Mubarak regime. You have noticed the restraint against the protesters. That was practically ordered from Washington. The kind of "transition" -- and the glacial slowness of it by the Palace in Cairo also seems to be tailored from DC.
The point, of course, is to sidestep the popular will as expressed by the protesters and install an acceptable regime to Washington and Tel Aviv.
This all seems to be pretty straightforward. They seem to have tried it in Tunisia, too, only to botch the uptake.
Egypt is an opportunity to get it right.
You can be sure the real worry in DC is that Saudi Arabia will fall to the Street, and that would be about the biggest mess of all for the hegemons and neo-colonialists.
At this point, I'm more worried about our home-grown theocrats than I am about the Arab and Muslim ones. At least their theocrats have some ideas about serving their fellow man. Our own have no such trivial interests.
We'll see what happens. At the least, nothing will be quite the same in that part of the world again.
Ché
Doing okay. Have not been hit by winter bugs yet. Knock on vitamin C.
ReplyDeleteBut am a bit worried about other health issues. Should get some feedback on that early next month.
Sorry to hear you're not feeling so well. Chicken soup and the rest, of course.
. . .
Will drop you an email soon.
Take care --