One of the best SITREPS of the Arab Revolt in Egypt I have read. The author is an Israeli peace activist, a hero of the 1948 War and a former member of the Knesset.
Chuck Spinney, The Blaster
Blown Opportunities Tsunami in Egypt
By URI AVNERY, Counterpunch, 14 February 2011
Until the very last moment, the Israeli leadership tried to keep Hosni Mubarak in power.
It was hopeless. Even the mighty United States was impotent when faced with this tsunami of popular outrage.
In the end it settled for second best: a pro-Western military dictatorship. But will this really be the outcome?
* * *
WHEN CONFRONTED with a new situation, Obama’s first response is generally admirable.
Then, it seems, second thoughts set in. And third. And fourth. The end result is a 180 degree turn.
Phi Beta Iota: Barack Obama has a good mind and a good heart trapped in the most unethical white system money can devise. Whether he fears assassination or lacks the close friendships with iconoclasts helpful to being all he could be, he has evidently died in place. Instead of Electoral Reform and intelligence-driven policy replete with ethics and a commitment to do the right thing, not the wrong thing righter, he has blown more than Egypt–he has failed himself, his family, his public, and the ideal that once was America the Beautiful.
