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

foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • barack obama
where between laughable, bewildering, and deeply offensive. Suspicion of
American intentions runs deep, as does folk wisdom about decades of U.S.
collaboration with Mubarak. They are not really parsing Hillary Clinton’s
adjectives. Their protest has a dynamic and energy of its own, and while
they certainly want Obama to take their side forcefully and unequivocally,
they don’t need it.
What they do need, if they think about it, is for Obama to help broker an
endgame from the top down—to impose restraints on the Egyptian military’s
use of violence to repress protests, to force it to get the Internet and
mobile phones back online, to convince the military and others within the
regime’s inner circle to ease Mubarak out of power, and to try to ensure that
whatever replaces Mubarak commits to a rapid and smooth transition to civilian,
democratic rule. And that’s what the administration is doing. The administration’s
public statements and private actions have to be understood
as not only offering moral and rhetorical support to the protesters, or as
throwing bones to the Washington echo chamber, but as working pragmatically
to deliver a positive ending to a still extremely tense and fluid situation.
I completely understand why activists and those who desperately want
the protesters to succeed would be frustrated—anything short of Obama
gripping the podium and shouting “Down With Mubarak!” probably would
have disappointed them. But that wasn’t going to happen, and shouldn’t
have. If Obama had abandoned a major ally of the United States such as
Hosni Mubarak without even making a phone call, it would have been irresponsible
and would have sent a very dangerous message to every other U.S.
ally. That doesn’t mean, as some would have it, that Obama has to stick with
Mubarak over the long term—or even the weekend—but he simply had to
make a show of trying to give a long-term ally one last chance to change.
The key line in his remarks here is this: “When President Mubarak addressed
the Egyptian people tonight, he pledged a better democracy and
greater economic opportunity. I just spoke to him after his speech and I told
him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words, to take concrete
steps and actions that deliver on that promise.”
This is not the language of capitulation to Mubarak’s empty promises of
reform. It’s a pretty sharp challenge to him to demonstrate serious change
immediately, which in no way commits to backing Mubarak if he fails to
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