Posted on 02/01/2011 3:12:36 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama appeared on Tuesday to have persuaded his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, to take a middle course of promising to step aside later this year.
It was unclear if that would satisfy the hundreds of thousands of protesters who gathered across Egypt to call on Mubarak to immediately relinquish power.
After days of putting pressure on Mubarak while seeking to avoid unleashing instability in the longtime U.S. ally and most populous Arab nation, Obama sent an envoy to privately urge the Egyptian president to prepare for a transition in power.
Hours later, Mubarak said in a speech that he would not run for the presidency in September and would work in the last months of his term to allow the transfer of power, saying the main priority was the stability of the nation.
"It won't work. This just really won't work," Elliot Abrams, a former deputy national security adviser, told CNN.
"I can't see anybody in Tahrir Square accepting that he will be president for eight more months and that he would, after 30 years, be trusted to be the man in charge of the democratic transition. Why would anyone believe that?"
Former U.S. ambassador Frank Wisner met with Mubarak earlier and delivered a message about the need to prepare for an "orderly transition," according to U.S. officials.
Obama has struggled to balance pressure to back protesters' calls for political change against any perception the United States is meddling in another country's affairs. U.S. officials have been concerned that publicly urging Mubarak to quit would unsettle other authoritarian U.S. allies in the region.
Mubarak, 82, has been a close U.S. partner for decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The odds aren’t good for military strong-men who befriend the US. Saddam Hussein, Pervez Musharraf, Pinochet (Chile), Noriega (Panama), Shah or Iran, various South Vietnam leaders, Batista (Cuba), were all eventually left swinging in the wind. The commies are much more loyal to their preferred dictators).
ps. I only list Pinochet because he’s typically identified by the MSM as a dictator. Chile would be another South American socialist basket case if it wasn’t for him.
I call BS. 0bama is taking credit for decisions Mubarak is making on his own.
He started by saying nothing until after Mubarak spoke the other night then called him, told him he better be serious, then jumped on American TV and boasted how he really told Mubarak what to do.
Now he is trying to take credit for something that Mubarak probably decided himself - he is 82 years old - and is jumping on TV to take credit for it.
zer0bama is the most egotistical, narcissistic world leader since nero. Or maybe nero was not so bad in retrospect.
If anyone doesn’t believe the press is biased and this doesn’t convince them, there’s no hope. The first sentence of this “news” article says Obama “appeared on Tuesday to have persuaded” Mubarak not to run. Apparently yahoo is convinced that’s the only reason Mubarak made the announcement. So sad.
I bet Nero had a better jump shot and golf swing
Obama should heed his own advice. Step aside, and the sooner the better.
LOLOL
What’s the half life of a “diplomat” anyway?
CFR - Elliott Abrams
Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies
http://www.cfr.org/experts/france-israel-egypt/elliott-abrams/b1567
And a mean fiddle...
I don’t believe this story for a second. It probably went down something like;
Obama: What do you intend to do Mubarak?
Mubarak: I intend to announce I won’t seek re-election
Obama: I support that.
Media: Obama saves the day by laying down the law to Mubarak. A true hero!
upsdriver: Bullsh!t
Obama didn’t persaude him. This is media spin for Zero.
The Egyptian armed forces persuaded him.
Nero murdered his wife, married 3 men (Nero was their “wife”), and married a Eunich (Nero castrated him before the wedding) with Nero being his husband.
...all while Rome burned around him. Nero was pretty bad.
I didn’t know all that about Nero. He was a bad individual.
If 0bama sells out this Republic, as well as the entire middle east, he will be worse.
There are too many links back to Obamas office for the coup that we are witnessing. Obama has just set up a war with Israel, and this was already orchestrated long ago. Thus, he can confidently say he didnt take sides, at least in public while it was happening. His prestige has just gone up 5 points in the muslim world for catching America sleeping.
America needs to give its head a shake, cuzz if and when they tip Israel over, then they will be coming for the BIG satan.
Here we have a treasonous president who has already initiated the precipitation of our own demise. Most do not see it cuzz they have been kissed to sleep.
Maybe somebody can fill me in on when Egyptians became "Arabs."
Lamestream media trying to put Zero ‘in front’. Ain’t gonna work. It’s out if his hands...and theirs. And the whole world sees it.
Someone’s got the goods on him. Just a matter of time.
Does someone who is under Obama's thumb blow the whistle on a secret meeting between Obama's minions and the MB? I subscribe to the "trying to take credit" theory.
What a strange post...care to explain?
Abrams is right.
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