Friday ramblings--Egypt: Ally or enemy!
Some parts of the press--CNN--are advancing a line of attack that features this theme: The comments yesterday made by president Obama in which he stated that Egypt is neither an ally nor an enemy were a misspeak that the state department and the White House were having to walk back in written and spoken statements. The line of attack goes further in stating that if Mitt Romney had made the statement that Obama made, the Democrats would have been all over Romney for making that statement. Mitt
Romney has appeared to wise up a little over the past couple of days as he tries to walk back his own blunder in which he stated that, following the standard Republican/neoconservative line, president Obama is an apologist to those that would oppose America instead of standing up for America and it supposed values. Now, Romney is avoiding foreign affairs almost completely, stating in a reply to the Obama comment given in an interview that Romney tended to shoot and then aim later in regard to foreign affairs, that this was just politics and he had no reply to it.
The reality is that the president of the United States sets a great deal of American foreign policy and he could be on the leading edge of changing America’s stance toward Egypt. The simple fact is that president Obama was sending a message to the Egyptian leadership that if they didn't, in effect, shape up and begin protecting our assets inside of Egypt and hold steady to the treaties that were put in place, particularly concerning Israel, that the status of our relationship with Egypt would change. It is interesting to note that, this morning, the Egyptian Brotherhood cancelled practically all of its scheduled rallies across the nation and restricted them to one rally in Tahrir Square in Cairo. What the president did was send a message through the media to Egypt and that was certainly not any sort of misspeak. This history of our relationship with Egypt is long and well predates the Camp David Accords in which peace, a lasting one so far, between Egypt and Israel, was the hallmark of the otherwise often failed Carter administration. One of the things that we are sure that the Obama administration is very concerned with is whether the new Muslim Brotherhood dominated government will begin to renege on those accords, one of the capstones of which is all of the aid that is flowing from the United States to Egypt. Of great concern recently was the removal from power in the Egyptian military of many who were very friendly to the United States. It was through these high ranking officers that, during the days of the revolution, the United States was able to keep some control over the events that occurred
It is also interesting to note that the Romney campaign put out a message on their website that stated that the president had misspoke and that he was running an amateurish operation when it comes to foreign affairs. Former Ambassador Roemer, an advisor to the Obama campaign, stated this morning on CNN that the Romney campaign's answer to most foreign affairs crises' was directly out of the George W. Bush playbook of confrontation and sending our young military people into harms way instead of using diplomacy! After he broached this line, CNN stopped the interview.
In point of fact, not only to we have a presidential candidate who is amateurish on foreign policy--Mitt Romney--but we also have a team backing him straight out of the George W. Bush administration and also straight out of the infamous Committee for the New American Century, the cultish group that sent Bush and our troops into the folly of Iraq. It is interesting to note that Bush's father, George H.W. Bush would have nothing to do with these people but his son fell right in with them and attempted to carry out their vision for an America who would dominate the world by its military might almost alone. It is very important, in our view, that it be publicized that so many of these Bush era people are now advising Romney, and, that if he is elected, they will dominate American foreign and military policy once again. We remember the comment made by some of these Bush era people that America is an empire now! No one seems to know Mitt Romney mind and this is a danger when it comes to foreign affairs. Not only to people inside of the United states need to know your thinking, but, even more important, those, particularly our allies, need to know it just as well. When they begin to think, even before you are elected, that you have reverted back to the days of a personality such as Bush, you place your administration and your nation behind the eight ball before you ever even take the oath of office.
In a few words, Romney's foreign policy is a potential in your face foreign policy just like the very arrogant George W. Bush foisted off on a world that came to dislike America in a way that we have seldom seen in the past before. The Obama administration has spent the last three plus years trying to repair that damage and restore this nation to the respect and credulity that it once enjoyed in the world. Some say that this election is simply about domestic affairs--the economy--and that foreign affairs is but a sidelight. Tell that to every American who watched with horror the constantly unfolding events in Iraq over the Bush years and all of those who came home in all of those body bags.
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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