Revolution in the Arab World - Observation of a lost soul Blog

foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • barack obama
Blogging Egypt: Marc Lynch
on Obama’s Challenge
January 28
Like approximately 99 percent of the Arab world and the U.S. government,
I’ve been glued to Al Jazeera all morning watching the astonishing
images of mass demonstrations and brutal security force repression across
Egypt. I’m not going to even try to summarize the course of events thus
far—for now I just wanted to quickly note that the Obama administration
needs to get out in front of this very, very soon. Its messaging has been
good thus far, consistently and firmly been speaking out against Egyptian
repression and in support of political freedoms. The message has been muddied
by a few unfortunate exceptions such as Clinton’s early comment about
Egyptian stability, presumably before she had been fully briefed, and Biden’s
bizarre praise for Mubarak last night. Despite those false notes, it’s been a
strong message … but one that is rapidly being overtaken by events.
This is about more than Egypt—it touches the United States’ entire position
in the region. After weak early coverage, Al Jazeera has more than
risen to the occasion today with graphic, riveting coverage of the fateful
day. Al Jazeera and a few other media outlets have compensated for the
Egyptian government’s remarkable shutdown of virtually the entire Internet
and mobile-phone networks and have thwarted the regime’s effort to
impose an information blackout allowing its brutal methods to go unwitnessed.
Al Jazeera has reclaimed ownership of a narrative that has long
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