Showing posts with label Omar Suleiman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Omar Suleiman. Show all posts

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Egypt: Suleiman Is Not An Option

Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Egypt: The Army May Not Take Over
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

SHARM EL SHEIKH/EGYPT, 18MAY08 - Muhammad Hosn...Image via WikipediaThe goal of the revolution is regime change. The goal is a total ouster from power of people who are in power. Mubarak has to vacate the scene, and he has to take his entire entourage with him.

Mubarak is not an option. The military is not an option. Suleiman - I don't even know what he looks like and would like to keep it that way - is not an option.

This is a revolution, people. It will settle for nothing less than a total reshaping of Egyptian politics. Democracy's time has finally come, and no dictator or the dicatator's minion is going go get in the way.

Out, Mubarak, out. Take your entourage with you. Don't let the door hit you on your way out.
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Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Arab Dictators Are Shaking

Official portrait of Secretary of State Hillar...Image via WikipediaEgypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards
New York Times: Allies Press U.S. to Go Slow on Egypt: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have each repeatedly pressed the United States not to cut loose Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, too hastily, or to throw its weight behind the democracy movement in a way that could further destabilize the region ..... One Middle Eastern envoy said that on a single day, he spent 12 hours on the phone with American officials. ..... There is evidence that the pressure has paid off. On Saturday, just days after suggesting that it wanted immediate change, the administration said it would support an “orderly transition” managed by Vice President Omar Suleiman. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that Mr. Mubarak’s immediate resignation might complicate, rather than clear, Egypt’s path to democracy, given the requirements of Egypt’s Constitution..... “Everyone is taking a little breath,” said a diplomat from the region ..... “There’s a sense that we’re getting our message through.” .... a sudden, chaotic change in Egypt would destabilize the region or, in the Arab nations, even jeopardize their own leaders, many of whom are also autocrats facing restive populations..... She said that she had spoken to King Abdullah II of Jordan and that President Obama had made calls to other leaders. ...... Administration officials said the tense mood in many of these countries had eased in recent days, as the United States has embraced a transition process in Egypt that does not demand Mr. Mubarak’s immediate departure...... Israeli officials, who have long viewed Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Suleiman
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. (2002 photo)Image via Wikipedia as stabilizing influences in a dangerous region, have made clear to the administration that they support evolution rather than revolution in Egypt. They believe it is important to make changes within the system rather than change the system first and hope stability can be maintained.... he has been the Israeli government’s preferred successor to Mr. Mubarak for several years...... Speaking to Mr. Obama on Sunday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, the Emirates’ defense chief, emphasized the need for “stability” in Egypt ..... The crown prince “also stressed the necessity that the period of transition in Egypt should be smooth and organized through the framework of national institutions” ..... Obama also spoke last week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia..... The Arab leaders all had the same message for the United States, several Arab officials said. They thought Mr. Obama went too far last Tuesday when he said that Mr. Mubarak needed to begin the transition in Egypt “now” — followed a day later by Mr. Gibbs’s declaration that “now means yesterday.” ..... One Arab diplomat likened the democracy movement to a train fueled by university students and human rights advocates..... “Eventually, those students will have to get off that train and go back to school, and the human rights people will have to go back to work, and you know who will be on the train when it finally rolls into the station?” the diplomat asked. “The Muslim Brotherhood.”
President George W. Bush and Egyptian Presiden...Image via Wikipedia

Hillary is not getting it. Mubarak goes. The constitution goes. What comes into place is an interim government and an interim constitution.

America should not feel like it has the option to betray the Arab peoples currently not represented by the governments in place. Washington has been in talks with a whole bunch of illegitimate regimes.

The king of Nepal also tried to scare people by saying if you oust me, you get the Maoists. What these people are saying is if you oust Mubarak, Bin Laden will come into power. Autocrats will use any logic to stay in power.

Hillary needs to stop talking reform b.s. in the face of revolutions. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
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Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement

President George W. Bush and Egyptian Presiden...Image via WikipediaI am so glad Hillary Clinton lost the 2008 primary. I am so glad Joe Biden lost the 2008 primary. These white folks are acting unreal. Hillary thinks the street action in Cairo is chaos that might bring forth the Islamists on stage. Biden went on record to say "Mubarak is not a dictator." That is what happens to you when you spend too many long years on the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.

This reminds me of the American ambassador in Nepal in 2005. The dude was hellbent on suggesting there was only a military solution to the Maoist insurgency, and that the democrats should forge an alliance with the monarch who had just pulled a coup and taken over. Made no sense.

This revolution in Egypt is not the US State Department's doing, but the US State Department is hellbent on undoing it. Why? Assange gets more credit that Hillary on the "chaos" in the streets of Cairo. The exposure showed that the governments of the world are incapable of the rapid change that the world is asking for. The message in Cairo is democracy now, not democracy after Mubarak dies in the presidential palace, peacefully in sleep two decades from now.

Mubarak was always a dictator. The only legitimate way to conclude this revolution is by a total ouster of Mubarak and the taking over of power by an interim government led by that Nobel Prize winning dude. His mandate would be to hold elections to a constituent assembly within a year. Then that assembly takes over power.
Time: Egypt Opposition Defiant over VP Warning: a warning from Vice President Omar Suleiman that if their movement doesn't enter negotiations, a "coup" could take place causing greater chaos, as a mass demonstration in a central Cairo square entered its 16th day...... Many have been sleeping underneath the tanks of soldiers surrounding the square to prevent them from moving or trying to clear the area for traffic....... a coalition of the five main youth groups behind the protests in Tahrir Square ...... U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Suleiman, saying Washington wants Egypt to immediately rescind emergency laws that give broad powers to security forces — a key demand of the protesters..... "We won't give up," Wael Ghonim promised at one of the biggest protests yet in Cairo's Tahrir Square...... Many protesters fear he aims to fragment the movement with partial concessions and gestures.
If this revolution does not see complete success through a total, unceremonial ouster of Mubarak, the tide will stop. The tide will not spread to the other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. And maybe it is Saudi Arabia that the US State Department is thinking about. It should not. The Saudi king also has to go.

The next phase of the revolution would be to march on the presidential palace itself. You can not wait forever. You have to take it up one notch.

Connect the dots. Unless all Arab countries have been turned into full fledged democracies, there can be no genuine peace in the Middle East. All those high profile summits organized by the US State Department are sham as long as there is no democracy. And street protests are the best way to bring democracy about. Fan the flames. Don't try to douse them. Saudi Arabia next. Iran all over again.

A democracy movement concludes with an utter, total collapse of the autocratic regime and the taking over of power by an interim government led by the leading democratic activist. And then in a year you hold elections to a constituent assembly.

How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards
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