Clashes Erupt in Cairo Between President’s Allies and Foes from the New York Times
"The confrontation injected a new and perilous element into the eight-day standoff between anti-government protesters and Mr. Mubarak, hours after he offered to step down in September and President Obama urged a faster transition."
Bad news!! I listened to Mubarak's statement last night -- he is totally out of touch with what's really going on. And it seems his most darkly cryptic statement was that he was committed to "dying on his home soil of Egypt." No fleeing to some third country for him! This violence will gradually shut off certain more peaceful outcomes in Egypt. If this persists, the situation will further escalate and the two most extreme outcomes become more likely: a Tienanmen Square type of resolution (where the army crushes the protests) … or a Romanian Nicolae Ceauşescu kind of solution (where the protesters ultimately shoot down the leaders of the old regime). It is still possible for a peaceful resolution to occur -- but that outcome became somewhat LESS LIKELY after the last 24 hours' events.
Obama Presses Mubarak to Move 'Now' from the New York Times
"President Obama, clearly frustrated by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's intention to retain his hold on power until elections later this year, said Tuesday evening that he has told Mubarak that a transition to representative government "must begin now.""
Yemen’s Leader Pledges Not to Seek Re-election from the New York Times
"President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen said on Wednesday that he would not run for re-election when his term ends in 2013, a stunning concessions to protesters that marked yet another reverberation of the anger that has rocked the Arab World."
Who got to their state-run television first to make this declaration? Mubarak or this guy?
Mubarak's 9 Biggest Mistakes (Blake Hounshell) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"It seems that Mubarak has made yet another mistake, one that may ultimately lead him to share Ben Ali's fate. So what were his biggest blunders?"
B.E., Before Egypt. A.E., After Egypt (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"I’m meeting a retired Israeli general at a Tel Aviv hotel. As I take my seat, he begins the conversation with: “Well, everything we thought for the last 30 years is no longer relevant.” That pretty much sums up the disorienting sense of shock and awe that the popular uprising in Egypt has inflicted on the psyche of Israel’s establishment."
For Autocrats Everywhere, the Risk of Becoming Toast (Steve LeVine) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"We've been discussing how far the ripples of the turmoil in Egypt might be felt. Until now, only Middle East dictatorships have appeared to be at risk. But it's early -- it look awhile in the late 1980s before the Gorbachev-era democracy wave took hold, and longstanding political and commercial walls fell from Latin America, to Asia, to Europe."
The Plight of Northern Yemen: A Life of Conflict, Dust and Ruins from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"The remote region of northern Yemen has been devastated by six wars and is cut off from regular aid supplies. A delegation of the UN relief agency and the EU recently visited the area for the first time -- and found child warriors, desperate refugees and cities of dust."
Is Jordan Next? (Alex Eichler) from the Atlantic
"The king fired his prime minister, Samir al-Rifai, and jettisoned his cabinet this week, as thousands of Jordanians demonstrated in the capital and elsewhere. The move is widely being seen as a preemptive, conciliatory gesture, though it's not clear whether it will be enough to mollify the protesters. The U.S. has reason to keep an eye on this story, since Jordan is a close ally of American interests in the region. Here's what's going on and the main questions going forward:"
A Revolution Grows Up (David Ignatius) from the Washington Post via RealClearWorld
"It's wishful thinking to suggest, as Elliott Abrams did last Sunday in The Washington Post, that the persistence of these reform ideas validates President George W. Bush's policies. In truth, wars that Bush either started or couldn't prevent -- in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza -- blunted reform hopes. Bush meant well by his "freedom agenda," but he pulled the reformists down with him."
Now Dawning: The Next Era of Middle East History (Gerald Seib) from the Wall Street Journal
"The last six decades of Middle Eastern history can be neatly divided into three phases: The first began with Gamal Abdel Nasser's 1952 revolution in Egypt, the second with the Arab world's humiliating loss in the 1967 war with Israel and the third with the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. A fourth phase likely started over the weekend in Egypt."
The Freedom Agenda Revisited (Paul Pillar) from the National Interest
"Max Boot asks “are we all neocons now?” and Elliott Abrams declares that revolt in Tunisia, demonstrations in Egypt, and marches in Yemen “all make clear that Bush had it right.”
So what exactly is the “it” that George W. Bush supposedly had right? That a lot of people in this region are unhappy with their political and economic lot? That enough of them are sufficiently unhappy that, given the right catalyst, they can put together some really serious and destabilizing street demonstrations? I wasn't aware that this was a subject of disagreement between neoconservatives and the Bush administration, on one hand, and American analysts of any different persuasion, on the other hand. No, disagreements arose where the beliefs of the neocons and Bush went further than that—to their faith that not only were the foundations of autocratic regimes in the Middle East unstable but that if those regimes could be knocked down, what would arise would necessarily represent an advance of freedom, of democracy, and of U.S. interests."
Out on-the-money pundit for the day!! Neo-cons have been coming out of the woodwork the last several days and crowing about Bush's "freedom agenda." As Pillar notes, these folks are simply indulging in self-serving reputation rehab.
The Right's Egypt Freakout (Michelle Goldberg) from the Daily Beast
"Glenn Beck blasts the uprising in Cairo as a threat to our way of life. Michelle Goldberg on how the rebellion is splitting U.S. conservatives—and the fallout for the 2012 presidential campaign."
Do We Have Law in America? (Michael Tomasky) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"At the level of policy-making, we no longer have law in the US. We have only politics. A judge like Roger Vinson in yesterday's decision...he's a conservative, and it's pretty obvious that he knew what political outcome he wanted and worked backwards, constructing his argument. Usually, judges are much better than Vinson at concealing this and cloaking their reasoning in the law's majesty. They don't cite the Boston Tea Party, as Vinson did…"
Does Huntsman Stand a Chance in 2012? (Ed Kilgore) from the New Republic
"The Utah governor and Obama appointee is too centrist—and too much like Romney. … Huntsman has one big problem: his prescription, before the 2010 mid-terms, that the solution to the Republican Party’s political woes was to move to the center."
BUSH '43 NUGGET!!
A Bush Twin's Defection on Gay Marriage (Jacob Bernstein) from the Daily Beast
"Barbara Bush’s public break with her father on gay marriage is momentous, but not shocking to friends, who call her a “progressive, free-minded thinker.” Jacob Bernstein on her life in New York."
CUTE DOG NUGGET!!
Adorable Dog Bath Caught on Camera to Music (VIDEO) from Huffington Post
"Puppies. They always seem to cheer us up when we need a smile. This adorable dog decided to take a bath."
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