The Philadelphia Route

Besides showing that Obama has no credible plan (that he can publicly articulate) for the Middle East, the current crisis in Egypt points to America’s waning influence in the region. Yesterday, our president was absurdly trying to position himself to take credit for what he thought was about to happen from reading headlines in the papers. It is clear that his name had been struck from the list of those who need to know. As such, he knew as much as we do. So much for the billions our government spends on intelligence.

It might be useful to remember why Mubarak has been in power for 30 plus years: Egypt is the only country in the Middle East to sign a peace treaty with Israel. This means that Egypt has been the only country in the region to acknowledge the fact of Israel’s existence. Previous American administrations understood that this was the only requirement for Mubarak to stay in power.

As our current president has continued to make it clear that Israel no longer matters to him, Mubarak’s role also diminished in importance. Other aspects of Mubarak’s rule were now subject to full exposure.

Mubarak was basically America’s cop in the Middle East. He was properly rewarded by the U.S. to keep the peace within his limited jurisdiction. He has done an admiral job of it, suppressing the murderous attitudes among his own people, sometimes by force. He essentially put those who were crying out for Israel’s destruction in jail. We do the same with people who repeatedly voice threats of bodily harm towards others.

In recent years, it has come to be widely accepted that it is Israel that is actually at fault here; that Israel no longer deserves our protection. Therefore, the cop, Mubarak, was no longer needed. The Muslim Brotherhood - long committed to Israel’s destruction - had now served its sentence (and had hopefully learned its lesson) and was now to be released from confinement.

As the Brotherhood enjoys great influence and popularity throughout the Middle East (where Israel is universally despised), Obama initially thought that freeing Mumia Abu-Jamal (sic) would earn him some accolades. There have already been prison breaks in Egypt. Mumia (sic) will be freed (if he hasn‘t been already). Accolades for Obama? No (neither here nor there).

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/