Excerpt one:
"[..]If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighbourhood and U.S. President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame [..]" (source)
Translation: Leave Mubarak alone as he is keeping us safe we don't really care about anybody or anything else :P
Translation: Leave Mubarak alone as he is keeping us safe we don't really care about anybody or anything else :P
Excerpt two:
"[..]WSJ: And do you think that the West or the US will have less influence or less inability to dictate because of these changes?
President Assad: This is the first time to hear the word 'dictate' from the West because we are called 'dictators,' and a 'dictator' should dictate. [...] (source )
Wall Street Journal not beating around the bush at all :P
12 comments:
First, I am happy to "hear" from you again, Hignlander!
Second, let me disagree with you, as usual :-).
"Leave Mubarak alone as he is keeping us safe we don't really care about anybody or anything else :P"
I disagree with your implication that Israelis are bad people for thinking this way. Whom and what should they care about, according to you? The well-being of people chanting "Death to Israel", brainwashed souls who perceive democracy as open season for Jews (and Copts and Western tourists and... - fill in the category)?
I think it is quite OK to care first about your own well-being, and last about the well-being of your enemies.
I keep my fingers crossed for the people of North Africa who seem to be having their 1989. However, thinking of some things they do care for, I fear that we may be witnessing Iranian Revolution, 2nd edition. Let's hope that time will prove me false prophet.
Glad to see you back :)
Maya thank you as usual you are my first respondent!
Actually I think we are in total agreement and harmony on this post :P because you prove that everyone has the right 'to care first about their own well-being' as you said..What I love is to uncover the hypocrisy of governments etc.. who always talk about democracy. Democracy is ok if it serves 'their' own purpose .
I'm keeping my fingers crossed too for the people of Middle East and North Africa in the hope that their wishes are finally granted regardless if other countries approve or not!
Craig - thanks I'm not back yet... this was just an interlude in my hiatus...
What I love is to uncover the hypocrisy of governments etc.. who always talk about democracy. Democracy is ok if it serves 'their' own purpose .
That's as it should be, in my opinion. A belief that democracy is the best form of government does not translate into a responsibility to try to get other nations to "convert" to it. Encouraging democracy in countries where it has potential to flourish is about as far as I'm willing to go with that. Therefore, I think the US (I'm american so I don't care what everyone else does) should be promoting democracy on a case by case basis, nation to nation. These promises to promote democracy worldwide which we've periodically been hearing over the last few decades seem misguided.
Generally, people equate "democracy" to "what I wish". Democracy is so much more. It includes awareness that there are other people on this planet and they have rights, even if you do not like them. To work, democracy requires some implicit elements of this sort.
Last year, I have read (actually, translated) some books by Ludwig von Mises. He wrote in one of them, "People do not act according to their interests, but according to what they think are their interests". You are hoping that the wishes of the people of ME and NA are granted. Well, the wishes of Iranians were granted in 1979. Did this make them, or anyone else, happy?
One of the wishes of Egyptians - of too many of them, at any rate - is that people like me stop drawing cartoons. Wishes are dangerous. There is a story titled "Monkey Paw", about a monkey paw that fulfills three wishes of its owner. The elderly couple who currently has the paw wishes to have 200 pounds. Their only son dies in an occupational accident, and the factory pays them 200 pounds in compensation.
Egyptian freedom fighters report that Muslim Brotherhood members are not very much represented among them. I am not surprised. Why should they? Why put their asses under fire? Let young secular idealists do the risky job now, and save your valuable person to be smoothly elected in several months. Because - and many fail to realize it - in a pro-democracy revolution, power goes not to those who make it but to those who get elected.
Of course every nation must eventually undergo the transition to democracy. But while this is happening, someone else must be in control - must dictate things, as WSJ said. I am very happy that, when Serbs very democratically elected Milosevic and he applied his agenda, US President was not Obama. I am afraid that, if the shit hits the fan now, Obama will just talk, for he cannot do anything else. I find it unfortunate that the NA revolutions had to happen exactly when the world is on an auto-pilot.
I wish the best for people of NA and ME - which, let me repeat, may be different from what they want.
Hey Wolfie! Bit windy on the North African shores, eh? :)
The Egyptians need two things, a new government and a new constitution. In 1979 the Iranians voted themselves an explicitly theocratic constitution. The latter - I daresay - simply will not happen in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood certainly will play a key role in future elections, but it would surprise me if they would be able to form a government of their own. I think it will probably be a multi-flavoured government.
And Maya:
"I am afraid that, if the shit hits the fan now, Obama will just talk, for he cannot do anything else."
What exactly do you mean by that? What would you like the US to do if the Egyptians elect the "wrong" government?
Oceankid,
What exactly do you mean by that? What would you like the US to do if the Egyptians elect the "wrong" government?
Why would you assume that when Maya says "when the shit hits the fan" that she's talking about a bad election outcome? That's certainly not what I think of as the worst possible result.
The election of a "wrong" government, by itself, requires no action. What I mean is that I would wish US to intervene if a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government starts a war with Israel.
why is everyone always worried only about Israel? Israel can surely take care of itself they probably are the most heavily armed in the region :P
"why is everyone always worried only about Israel?"
Because, as far as I know, the guys in question aren't threatening any other country.
I am also worried about Georgia. However, nobody would consider any attempt to force Russia to behave, with its outdated yet huge nuclear arsenal, and its role as energy supplier of Europe. So superpower Russia can be a bully as much as it likes and get away with it. However, I do not wish every regional power to become a bully.
I hope you are right about Israel being able to take care of itself. It is very likely, of course. It is also very likely that a generally healthy, well-fed child would recover from measles. 99,9% of children do. But because of the 1 child in a 1000 who will die, we have general immunization programs. We do not want to take chances.
I wish also to add that, fearing that "the shit may hit the fan", I do not mean only Israel and not only Egypt.
Things can get messy everywhere, and all efforts to predict what will happen and where are in vain. As the proverb says, if we knew where we would fall, we would first put there something soft...
I keep thinking of you.
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