Tag Archives: Egypt

Leading From Behind

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

President Barack Obama has cancelled joint military exercises with Egypt in the wake of a government crackdown on demonstrators demanding the return of deposed president Mohammad Morsi.

That crackdown (through yesterday afternoon) had led to the deaths of 525 people and the injury to more than 3,700 others. Friday in the Muslim world is the equivalent of Sunday in the West (or Saturday in Israel) and it is likely those numbers will rise dramatically. Continue reading →

Politics Is Easy, Governing Is Hard

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

This has to have been the longest, yet least relaxing Independence Day ever.

As you know, the 4th was on a Thursday so here, in Our Nation’s Capital, almost everyone I know pretended they had been sequestered out of having to work on Friday and made it a four day weekend.

While wondering why we choose to end 4th of July fireworks displays with the playing of The 1812 Overture by a Russian composer celebrating a victory over France this happened:

— The U.S. Government announced that the Employer Mandate part of ObamaCare could just wait until January 1, 2015 instead of its scheduled launch on January 1, 2014. It would have taken less time (3 years, 7 months) to defeat Japan in World War II than to implement ObamaCare (3 years, 9 months). And Obama will still miss it. Continue reading →

Gettysburg Anniversary Lessons to Relearn

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

The 150th Anniversary of one of the most important events in American history and arguably in world history slipped past the public consciousness July 3, without much attention or appreciation.

The event was the Battle of Gettysburg, actually a series of the most bloody battles of the Civil War that occurred just outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, beginning with Picket’s Charge up Cemetery Ridge on the afternoon of July 1, 1863, and ending with the retreat of the Confederate Army under the command of General Robert E. Lee in the early morning hours of Independence Day, July 4.

Continue reading →

Resetting the Middle East

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

President Barack Obama left last night for Israel in an attempt to “reset” the Israeli-US relationship. There are those who will say that if either side has to reset the relationship, it is the Israelis. I understand that; I don’t agree with it, but I understand it.

A couple of weeks ago shiny new Secretary of State John Kerry effectively presented a check to the Egyptian government – which is now in the throes of an electoral breakdown – for $250 million. Continue reading →

This ‘n That

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

I am desperately searching for something to write about that doesn’t include the words “fiscal cliff.”

Maybe we’ll just cruise around the net and see what catches our attention.

Here’s one. Remember that unbelievable photo of the 13-year-old Afghan girl who was on the cover of National Geographic in 1985? It was taken by Steve McCurry. If you’re old enough, you probably remember it. If you’re not, it’s worth looking at.

The National Geographic folks recently auctioned off much of its photo library and that particular picture sold for $178,900. Continue reading →

Middle East Violence Spontaneous?

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

“I’ve come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutal interest and mutal respect and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition.”  — President Barak Obama in Cairo, Egypt, June 4, 2009

In the last two weeks, three years after that speech, militant Islamists have been engaging in violent, lethal protests against the United States in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Tunisia, Indonesia, and Guinea. In Afghanistan, the U.S. is also facing violence from within, from Afghan police we have trained and work alongside.

Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, distanced her boss from the protests in a whirlwind weekend tour of Sunday talk shows. Continue reading →

Apology: U.S. Response to Egypt Violence

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

If you think the Administration of Barak Obama has its arms around foreign policy, read this from the Associated Press yesterday: “Ultraconservative Islamist protesters climbed the walls of the United States Embassy in Cairo on Tuesday and took down the American flag, replacing it with a black flag with an Islamic inscription to protest a movie attacking Islam’s prophet, Muhammad.”

Did President Obama demand that the Egyptian government provide assurances that our embassy would be protected?

No.

In fact, Obama’s crack foreign service issued an… apology.

He apologized for the presumed existence of a movie that no one on this planet (to my knowledge) has seen in its entirety. Continue reading →

Secular, Liberal Egypt. We Hardly Knew Ya

BY TONY BLANKLEY
Reprinted from Townhall.com

One of the nice things about human history is that no matter how much people or their leaders misjudge events and make a hash of things, within a few centuries, the debris is cleared away, and we can have another go at getting things right.

Yes, I am thinking about the Middle East. Whether or not there is a message in that turn of events, I’ll leave it to theologians.

At the moment, I have in mind the latest blunder by the experts — their assessment, just a few months ago, of the nature of the Arab Spring and its democracy movement. Back in spring, the leading experts — from the Obama administration to the neoconservatives on the right to the major liberal media to most of the academic area specialists — were all overwhelmingly predicting that all those great secular, liberal, college-educated kids with their iPhones in Tahrir Square represented the new Egypt and would bring all their wonderful values to the revolution. It was primarily us cranky right-wingers who have been writing on radical Islamic politics (and, of course, the Israelis, who can’t afford to get it wrong on Muslim political habits) who warned that this was all going to end in the rise in still-ancient Egypt of radical Islamist, anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti American and anti-Western governance. Continue reading →

War In Lybia: What’s In A Name

By Tony Blankley

Reprinted from The Washington Times

Amidst all the confusion over our new little war in Libya , one thing is clear: Notwithstanding the bravery and professionalism of our troops in naming it Operation Odyssey Dawn, the Pentagon has invoked a haunting specter. The war’s namesake  Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey”  is the tale of the hero, Odysseus, taking 10 years to get home from the Trojan War  which itself took 10 years to fight.

Continue reading →

Bahrain, A Jewel in the Desert

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from mullings.com

Headline:Saudi Troops Enter Bahrain to Help Put Down Unrest

Come with me into the Wayback Machine.

Back in the day, I worked for a company called EDS which had been founded by a guy named Ross Perot. Perot was gone in the mid-90s when I was there and got involved with what I’m about to describe to you.

Continue reading →

Egyptian Army Is West’s Best Hope

BY TONY BLANKLEY

Reprinted from townhall.com

Last Sunday, the media were reporting that the Muslim Brotherhood was sitting down with Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, in a completely unrelated story, the BBC reported that British Prime Minster David Cameron announced that “State multiculturalism has failed”: “David Cameron has criticized ‘state multiculturalism’ in his first speech as prime minister on radicalization and the causes of terrorism.

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Support Mubarak

BY TONY BLANKLEY

Reprinted from the Washington Times

Whatever may happen in the hours after I write this column, two things are certain: The next chapter in the magnificent and ancient civilization of the Nile is yet to be known. The role that America plays in Egypt‘s great, unfolding story also remains in doubt.

Continue reading →