As I watch the events unfold in Egypt today I am reminded once again how inexperienced and incompetent our President is in International affairs. Yesterday afternoon our President actually co-opted the demonstration in Egypt and compared it to his victory in 2008. He went on to espouse the virtues of the Egyptian People in having changed their leadership in this manner. Several hours later he was forced to hide behind a press release as it became clear the Egyptian President was not actually leaving. No amount of spin can hide this major misstep by our President.
From the beginning of this event the administration has been shown to be out of step and lacking any real intelligence about what was really happening. Whether you like Obama or not does not matter. When we have a president this far removed from facts about world events like this it is dangerous for all Americans, especially those who are in other countries. Although the liberal media machine will work hard to cover up the apparent incompetence it will not be an easy task. Just two weeks ago Vice President Biden said that Mubarak should not step down and said the protests around the Middle East were unconnected. Although Secretary of State Clinton's remarks have been more middle of the road, I suspect that is because she is smarter than Obama in these matters and probably saw the writing on the wall before he did about Mubarak's fate. Yesterday was just plain embarrassing to watch as our President came out like a cheerleader at a football game and praised the young people of Egypt for bringing about a change in their leadership. When Mubarak defiantly refused to step down last night I wondered if I was the only one who saw the similarities between Obama and Bush when he declared Mission Accomplished on the deck of an aircraft carrier. Of course the media will just ignore it and in the coming weeks as more and more facts come to light from those closest to the protest, the liberal machine will give Obama more and more credit for helping to bring about these changes.
As an American I hope our President will quickly overcome his ignorance of what just happened in Egypt and get up to speed so that we can as a nation help Egypt make a smooth transition to a true democracy. To that end we do have true leverage. The United States is the biggest source of funds for the Egyptian military and our administration needs to take advantage of that. If we don't, we are leaving the door open to groups like the Muslim Brotherhood to step into the power vacuum and if that happens all bets are off as to the safety of Israel and the United States.
President Obama has to act quickly to get rid of incompetent fools in his administration like the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who just yesterday said the Muslim Brotherhood was "largely secular" and not particularly extreme. (For those who don't know, the Muslim Brotherhood is largely suspected of having assassinated Anwar Sadat because of the peace treaty with Israel and they are credited with being the father group al qaeda and hamas.) There are plenty of other amateurs working in the administration and it is long past time to get rid of them for the good of all of us. There are some strong intelligent people there too and I hope the President leans more and more on them. Going forward I hope we can start getting better intelligence about the events that have unfolded and where these protests will erupt next.
Sometimes events happen that force us as Americans to put our political differences aside and unite as one voice. I believe this is one of those times. One of the realities around the world is that the people on the street in oppressed countries always look at America for guidance and always hope for our help. Unfortunately we sometimes have to support dictators for very political reasons and this leads to the alienation of the regular folks in those countries. When an opportunity comes along like the one in Egypt right now for there to be a real democracy formed, we should act quickly as a nation to help and to repair our relationship with the people there. Although I don't have much faith in his ability, I do want our President to get the response right so that we can do that. I want our leaders from both sides of the aisle to help him in this endeavor. This needs to be done for the good of our country. I am happy for the people of Egypt, I just hope their euphoria is not short lived or misguided.
