Photo-squirrel wrote: Just as one can say that OWS protester do not speak for any particular party or for the USA, I don't think the protester in ME are indicative of the overal populations in those countries.
As I heard explained today by some press folks, these mobs, aside from the small group of radical muslims, are more or less soccer hooligans with not much of idea of what they are protesting against. There is really no organization in these groups at all. I don't know where you are seeing information that says the majority of thos living in these countries have hatred for the US. Do you have some source? Maybe that is what you are missing?
Fair enough. But aren't these sovereign countries with governments running them? Don't those governments have a duty to protect the embassies within their borders? I get that the thugs hanging off the walls are just that....thugs. What I dont' get is why the governments of these countries are letting the thugs have their way.
Many of these countries' governments are new and fragile. The governments are trying to keep some sort of order without everything turning into chaos again. I'm not defending them. I'm stating a fact.
Cairo is a city of over 6.5 million people. How many do you think are involved in these 'protests'? The majority? I think most people are simply trying to get through their days, trying to improve their lives without hurting others...this is true around the world. Also true is that every society has angst ridden younger folks who will lash out against anything their told to lash out against. To generalize an entire city, race, religion, because of a very small percentage of people seems overly simplistic to me. Why doesn't the government control it?...well, unlike here in America, most places are not police states with completely militarized security forces who are willing to go in and stomp their neighbors, brothers, sisters. Amazing to think how our 'free' society is more controlled than many other places that supposedly are not 'free'. I agree with 2W that these are new governments, still getting their feet under them after the previous governments were overthrown by the people. Considering it was just demonstrated that the people could rise up over their governments, seems foolish to think the new government could just step in and tell the people what they are and are not going to do. The new government in Egypt is experiencing a squeeze between the demands of the extreme right fundamentalists and those pushing for more wetsern style of personal freedoms...kind of a 'lose-lose' situation where whichever action they take is bound to upset one side or the other. We can't force them to act as we want them to (is that freedom?). We can only do our best to offer support and hope they see that it would better for all if they choose to be our ally than if they choose to be against us.
CinnamonGirl wrote: LJ, They are showing the pope in Lebanon if you are interested.
No more than I would be interested in L. Ron Hubbard visiting the Indy-500...
Why would you think I would be interested in ANYTHING the pope does? Not to be snarky, but I'm surprised that you would think I would have any interest in what any religious leader does...
CinnamonGirl wrote: LJ, They are showing the pope in Lebanon if you are interested.
No more than I would be interested in L. Ron Hubbard visiting the Indy-500...
Why would you think I would be interested in ANYTHING the pope does? Not to be snarky, but I'm surprised that you would think I would have any interest in what any religious leader does...
The new government in Egypt is experiencing a squeeze between the demands of the extreme right fundamentalists and those pushing for more wetsern style of personal freedoms...kind of a 'lose-lose' situation where whichever action they take is bound to upset one side or the other. We can't force them to act as we want them to (is that freedom?). We can only do our best to offer support and hope they see that it would better for all if they choose to be our ally than if they choose to be against us.
I was initially taken aback by the very idea that protestors could get over the wall of the embassy but, when I lived there, Mubarak had a firm (strangle) hold on things and at the first sign of any kind of protest, trucks full of police showed up ready to beat it back should things get out of hand, so something like that would never have happened. They are doing a highwire act these days. Back in the day, my landlord was a police general and I've wished often in the past year or so that i could pick his brain again.
Obama obviously didn't make any kind of mistake when he referred to Egypt as not an ally. He was throwing down.
That is what a president does!
I'd have thought this was exactly the kind of tough talk conservatives would admire. If Bush had done this, I have no doubt, and I mean no doubt, that conservatives would have applauded it universally--throwing down the gauntlet at a Muslim Brotherhood leader, confounding the "Arabists" down at State.
I was initially taken aback by the very idea that protestors could get over the wall of the embassy but, when I lived there, Mubarak had a firm (strangle) hold on things and at the first sign of any kind of protest, trucks full of police showed up ready to beat it back should things get out of hand, so something like that would never have happened. They are doing a highwire act these days. Back in the day, my landlord was a police general and I've wished often in the past year or so that i could pick his brain again.
