Obama calls for restraint, reform in Egypt

[pinto]

Obama calls for restraint, reform in Egypt

By Jim Kuhnhenn, The Associated Press
Updated 4:46 PM Saturday, January 29, 2011

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama issued a plea for restraint in Egypt after meeting with national security aides Saturday to assess the Cairo government's response to widespread protests threatening the stability of the country.

A White House statement said Obama "reiterated our focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint, supporting universal rights, and supporting concrete steps that advance political reform within Egypt."

<snip>

"The Egyptian government can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat," Crowley said on his Twitter account. "President Mubarak's words pledging reform must be followed by action."

Crowley said Egyptians "no longer accept the status quo. They are looking to their government for a meaningful process to foster real reform."

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/nation-world-news/obama-calls-for-restraint-reform-in-egypt-1067430.html

[whosinpower]

1. Sounds good....until a person realizes

That this is the same message the Iranians are putting out.....

and the House of Saud is turning blue with rage.

[bread_and_roses]

2. phffffttttttttt....typically mealy-mouthed meaninglessness from Talks Pretty All Day

and says nothing - or at least nothing real. Or I guess in this case it is real enough - all too real for those in Egypt who, I feel quite sure, understand perfectly well that it means "we don't care how many of you are tortured and killed every day by this Regime, or how corrupt it is, or how farcical it's elections, or how desperately poor so many are, we'll support the Regime because we think it serves our Imperialist Hegemony."

Thus once again making absolutely clear that Washington is still not a friend to the people of the Middle East, doesn't care two whits about "democracy," and is too stupid to even read history and know that its support of brutal repression in the name of its own short-term interests is a key ingredient in the best recipe out there for fostering the rise to power of rabid fundamentalists.

[pinto]

3. I agree our actions in the Middle East, especially military action in Iraq and Afghanistan foster

extremist response. I'd guess most people in the world realize al Qaeda won't topple the US government. I suspect al Qaeda realizes that as well.

And agree, we have a poor history of supporting repressive regimes in the area. Shared with many European countries, who wrote the book on Middle East intervention in the nineteenth / twentieth centuries.

That said, I think hyperbole serves no one well in this discussion. Don't see how labeling Obama "Talks Pretty All Day" or the facile "Imperialist Hegemony" tag on our foreign policy fosters meaningful discussion.

:hi: