Egypt remains a puzzle for the U.S.

[FarCenter]

In the days before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here on Saturday, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet Egypt’s newly elected Islamist President, she planned to deliver a forceful public speech about democracy.

But with the new President still struggling to wrest power from Egypt’s top generals, there were too many questions, too many pitfalls and too little new for Ms. Clinton to offer, said several people briefed on the process. After rejecting at least three different drafts, the administration called off the speech days before its scheduled delivery, these people said.

The administration’s struggle to define a message here reflects its quandary with how to deal with a rapidly shifting contest for power whose outcome remains to be seen. Policymakers are struggling to balance a public push for a democratic Egypt against a desire to maintain long-term ties with factions — the generals and the Islamists — in a context where almost any U.S. statement is sure to provoke a backlash.

The generals have repeatedly rebuffed U.S. pressure. The new President, Mohammed Morsy, and the other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood still harbour deep doubts about the U.S. agenda. Some of Egypt’s secular politicians are even accusing the U.S., implausibly, of conspiring to back the Brotherhood. A secular political party and a Christian group have called for a protest outside the U.S. Embassy against what they assert to be U.S. support for the Islamists.

All of which has lent what some U.S. officials say is a sense of futility about Washington’s muffled voice in the future of a strategic ally.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article3642968.ece

[Poll_Blind]

1. They couldn't find a way to phrase "Honestly, we'd rather be dealing with your previous dictator...

...than you lot. We don't have you in the bag and we're not certain, yet, whether it'll pan out in the cost/benefit analysis to negotiate with you or help install another dictator to terrorize you for our benefit."

Very difficult to write that speech in a way that has Egyptians clapping at the end of it.

PB

[FarCenter]

3. They also point out that any threat to cut the $1.5 billion in aid is not very credible

Since $1.3 billion of it is military aid, mostly used to buy stuff from US defense contractors.

[teddy51]

2. One question might be is what doe's Washington know about Democracy anyway? Democracy

is supposed to be a Government that is "By the people, for the people, and of the people". I somehow think that we have lost our way in this country. Much of the problem lies at the feet of the people, and there is no doubt about that; " American Idol, Fox News, Bill O'Reiley, etc.". We are f**ked big time, and if we represent the rest of the world, the world is f**ked.