NBC Chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel…who had to sit down after he heard Barack Obama go off script and utter a half truth.
Barack Obama’s assertion that he doesn’t consider Egypt an ally stunned NBC’s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel. Engel, reporting from Cairo, tells Chuck Todd that he needed to “sit down” after hearing that statement. Engel reminds Todd that the US had two major Arab allies in the region when Obama took office, on which it spent a significant amount of foreign aid to keep it that way — Egypt and Saudi Arabia. If we’ve lost Egypt as an ally, Engel asks, wasn’t supporting the effort to overthrow Hosni Mubarak a huge mistake?
Well, in terms of its effect on the people of the USA, YES.
Not only that, but the aims of the govt of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood are harmful to the people of the USA, and since they have attacked our embassy I would argue that the situation is WORSE than no ally-no enemy. Far worse.
But kudos to Richard Engel who, I have a feeling, probably upset a lot of exec’s at NBC by REPORTING CRITICAL FACTS AND ANALYSIS WITHOUT REGARD TO WHO IT HARMED POLITICALLY
7 comments:
I have no doubt it was a huge mistake. Cruel as it may seem - and I was born and live in South America (Brazil, most exactly) - do you believe that, if USA hadn't supported our dictators of the right (those of my country, Pinochet, even the Argentinians and of fo "Banana Republics"), URSS would have been defeated as soon as it was? (And don't misandestand me: I think that it took long enough.)
Why would a man who is POTUS decide to topple Moubarek, an ally, when he knew (because the polls told him) that the Muslim Brotherhood would wind up in power and that the Muslim would not be an ally to the US?
Why?
Maybe we should ask Diinesh D' Souza.
Engel will be taken to the woodshed to get his 'mind right'.
This is not an easy one, and there is blame to go around.
It was completely predictable who the winner would be post Mubarak.
It was and is completely predictable what those winnners would want ..more Sharia, more salais in power, US OUT, Jews dead or paying jizya of some sort.
The big unknown is if the Egyptian people will one day get tired of this shit, and elect a govt which wants as a PRIORITY to make their lives better on earth and act like it. Given the Palestinian and HAMAS experience, I think the answer is NO.
That mean that the INEVITABLE loss of these dictatorships would sooner or later create some kind of Salafi rule.
What we failed to do was to STRATEGICALLY PREPARE FOR THIS.
Who is the most important nation to the USA if the entire arab littoral goes salafi?
How should we act towards that ally?
What should our relationship be like with nations who feel SOME KIND of satisfaction when our embassies are burned because we celebrate both the people's sovereignty and freedom of speech?
How should we act to CONTAIN their ambitions?
I guarantee you this has not been prepared in this admin while they waited for Abdullah Jefferson to show up.
But some blame goes all the way back to Carter WHO MUST HAVE KNOWN Sadat was not going to have an easy time of it with Camp David, and KNOWN the meaning of that. This is true for every prez since.
Diinesh D' Souza got it right. But you had to be quite thick not to realize that something was very rotten since the 2008 campaign started.
Ignorance, naivite and arrogance are deadly combinations. Ask former ambassador Stevens.
Epa,
Good, thoughtful comment.
The problem is, imo, Obama really does have an anti-Colonialist/Socialist/"America has to come down a few notches" mindset, and it nicely dovetails with the State Dept fantasy that if we give the Arab world Democracy, they will eventually get tired of the Islamists and want something better for themselves.
We have been, effectively, at war for 11 years, and in that time, even though we have won militarily, we have given away 8 countries, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, and soon to be Syria.
we could throw away countries without all the money spent on arms, I'm quite sure.
Epa,
Good, thoughtful comment.
The problem is, imo, Obama really does have an anti-Colonialist/Socialist/"America has to come down a few notches" mindset, and it nicely dovetails with the State Dept fantasy that if we give the Arab world Democracy, they will eventually get tired of the Islamists and want something better for themselves.
We have been, effectively, at war for 11 years, and in that time, even though we have won militarily, we have given away 8 countries, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, and soon to be Syria.
we could throw away countries without all the money spent on arms, I'm quite sure.
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