White House Walking Tightrope Over Egypt

(CBS)  WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is walking a very fine line about Egypt. On one hand they strongly support the rights of the protesters. On the other, the last thing they want is for Egypt to descend into chaos.

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Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid reports that the basic policy of the Obama administration right now is:

First, the administration is calling for "an orderly transition to a government that respects the rights of the Egyptian people."

Second, they are not calling on President Mubarak to step down.

And third, the White House is calling for free and fair elections in Egypt this fall, elections in which Mubarak may or may not be on the ballot.

It may seem odd that the White House is calling for a transition to a new kind of government but at the same time saying Mubarak may be able to stay around. The White House is being very adamant about this. They're saying they're not going to take sides. It's up to the people of Egypt to decide who their leader should be.

[commenter777]

Thank god Bush isn't the president now or we would be sending in troups, if we had any to send.

[Nikos_Retsos]

Chip Reid: I watched you earlier on the CBS Evening news, and I disagree with the facade the Obama administration portrays at the events in Egypt. They do not walk on a "tightrope." They are squarely determined to keep Mubarak in power at any cost. And on this one they are pressed immeasurably by Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and some Gulf states who fear that success in Egypt may encourage or ignite similar rebellions in their countries. That is why the U.S. stand actually has hardened, and it only wants now a Mubarak-led devolution, or a cosmetic change that will reduce the steam of the Egyptian rebellion, and give time to Mubarak to unleash again the security apparatus and - with U.S. help- make his opponents disappear the Augusto Pinochet (Chile) and the Jorge Videla (Argentina) way. Hundreds of thousands of Chileans and Argentines vanished -sedated and dumped overnight in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. I have no doubt that this scenario is playing now in Egypt, because Egypt seem to be a domino that may be disastrous for the U.S. despotic allies in Middle and Israel - if he falls. But the Egyptians will never forget if the U.S. with its support for him make his removal a bloody and messy martyrdom for them!

The Egyptian revolution actually blew in the U.S. face, because the U.S. propaganda of terrorist names on Palestinians and Hezbollah, an evil regime in Tehran, and a brutal regime in Syria felt flat, while the supposed democratic and stable U.S. allies are in war as corrupt and despotic with their own people. And the U.S. don't want democratic regimes in Arabia, because Arabs see the U.S. as a menace of the world - not as an ally to help them enjoy freedom and democracy, as it does when it howls those slogans at the Iranian government! That is why the Syrian president Bashar Assad laughed today when he was asked in an interview by the Wall Street Journal (Jan. 31, 2011) if he is concerned about an uprising in Syria. "No. he said." The government of Syria represents the beliefs of the Syrians. In countries with problems [Egypt], the government represents other interests [U.S./Israel] not those of the people. That is why they have those problems! And Iran, whether you like it o not, is what it is, and it will stay that way." (Not an his exact quotes, but as I recall them by reading the WSJ).

And that is why the U.S. had decided to stay firm with Mubarak, while it will publicly continue to rehash its phony concern for the Egyptian people. The U.S. sees the Egyptians as hostile to the U.S. interest and hegemony in the Middle East, and that is why it insists on a Mubarak "makover" rather on a Peoples Choice" of government. And this flies on the face of those lies coming out of the White House and Hillary Clinton that the U.S. want the Egyptian people to have a choice. Millions of the across Egypt - not only in Cairo- have said loudly that the have a choice, and that choice is "NO MUBARAK ANY MORE!" And hundrends have already died for. We went to Iraq, destroyed it, killed hundrends of thousands of Iraqis,
and made 4 million of them refugges to take out an eneny dictator - Saddam Hussein. Is it moral and ethical to cause bloodshed in Egypt now in order to save our own puppet dictator? That is what creates hatred around the world against us, and that is what fuels the terrorism against us. Nikos Retsos, retired professor

[LIBERALS-lie]

Obama can give another one of his "speeches". Talk to his Muslim peeps.