Yet another Anglo-American-backed dictator is set to fall from grace. The Shah of Iran, Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein -- they all refused to concede defeat. And they all fell down.
Hosni Mubarak will, too, if he doesn't review his history books. There are, after all, only two-types of Anglo-American dictators: those who accept the endgame and live free to tell the tale, and those who don't.
These men are dominoes -- there were many before them and there will be many after them to keep the system going. With all signs pointing to the end, more than one of them has refused to bow down -- just once. Instead these men remained in their deluded state of mind, fighting to stay in power -- never once remembering who had kept them there for so long.
And each time, the fall was hideously embarrassing.
It was an early-morning raid into the hole in the ground you were hiding in (Saddam Hussein), or an expulsion into exile, passed from country to country (you are a liability, after all) only to be buried abroad instead of at home (the Shah), or a quick pose for a mug-shot of your scarred and subjugated face as you stepped into the prison that would be your legacy (Manuel Noriega).
Though his own father was ousted by the Anglo-Americans, the Shah of Iran didn't seem to understand how serious his predicament was when in early January 1978 several thousand marched against him in the streets of Iran. He still didn't seem to understand when in mid-January 1979, he finally fled. It was only once he was bounced from country to country that he realized how much had been at stake. His story ended in Cairo, where his remains still lay, resting alone in an alien land.
Not long after the Shah was Noriega. The military dictator of Panama never dreamed (though it was in the recent past of history) that the Anglo-Americans would turn on him. They told him to leave -- his time was up. He didn't hear them. They waged war and now the only thing most people know about him is his infamous mugshot. He will die in prison, if he has lived at all these last three decades.
And then there was Saddam Hussein. They pulled him out of a hole he was hiding in. The crow-black dye on his hair was faded to a shadow of its former glamor. His famous mustache was indistinguishable from his barbed nest of beard. They hung him in a basement and released the "stolen" cellphone video to prove it. He once waged war on his neighbor for them and this was how they repaid him.
On the brink of total loss, there is only one thing that could possibly save these ultimate dictators from themselves: the people. But nary a bone is tossed to the masses. These madmen could save their lives -- or at least their legacies -- if they would turn on their bosses instead of their people. Rather than sicking the security forces on the "insolent" public, they could reveal the dirty secrets of how they appeased their foreign bosses all those years. Make the backers look bad.
But they never once have.
Should he somehow manage to realize that he's nothing special, Mubarak has many examples in history to turn to. Will he pull a Pinochet and quietly transfer power, thereby escaping the "ultimate slap"? Will he make like a Batista and flee? Or will he take a cue from Musharraf and negotiate a power-sharing step down that allows him future options at leadership?
If you leave when the US and British governments tell you to, as these three men did, then you will avoid a crude end. And, you'll live your last few decades in opulence -- perhaps in a nicely developed country (nothing like the one you left behind in shatters) -- thanks to the wealth you accumulated in power.
But Mubarak still hasn't left. And he's made all the same mistakes of his predecessors. He didn't have the sense not to turn on the people. And he was too deluded to flee. If he doesn't make provisions to leave office immediately, his only option will be that ugliest of endings. Either way, the thousands of people in Tahrir Square are already bidding him farewell.
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One group of Muslims bombed Copts as they came out of New Years Mass. They were deplored by other Muslims who did not just talk but organized and came out to protect the Copts as ‘human shields’ and went to the Christmas Mass [ Orthodox calendar] which was the next major Holy Day. Have you been to a Christmas Mass? Do you know the message? Do you understand the importance of Muslims not only disapproving of violence but stepping up in great numbers to protect Copts, and how that connects to that message?
I am tired of the hatred. I am tired of those who select news and ignore anything that counters the talking points that shape news coverage.
You say that Obama’s speech in Cairo was pandering. You just don’t like him. Say that. He said what needed to be said and at times not what people expected to hear.
Obama in Cairo on tolerance in Islam:
I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today. …
The richness of religious diversity must be upheld – whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt. And fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.
ths reply:
JanP IS Jihadis Islam a danger or is it a figment of the imagination?
the response is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANk9qydfGe4
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-cairo-university-6-04-09
There is a very dangerous agenda now at play in the US to continue to misinform the public.
Intentionally misleading and spun by mouthpieces such as Glenn Beck and others at Fox News the construction: Boogey Islam, is false and destructive to the interest of peace and fellowship. Fear makes sense to people these days. Boogey Islam is a grand manipulation that is working only too well. Absent meaningful news it continues.
We need to understand this:
Following the well publicized bombing at a Coptic Mass on New Year’s, there was not only a huge outcry against the perpetrators but a very significant civil action in the streets by Muslims to protect Coptic Christians as they celebrated Christmas Mass on the Orthodox calendar. This happened a little more than two weeks before the larger and more sweeping uprising that we are seeing to oust Hosni Mubarak. The spirit of these two movements is continuous.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/3365.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANk9qydfGe4
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-cairo-university-6-04-09
There is a very dangerous agenda now at play in the US to continue to misinform the public.
Intentionally misleading and spun by mouthpieces such as Glenn Beck and others at Fox News the construction: Boogey Islam, is false and destructive to the interest of peace and fellowship. Fear makes sense to people these days. Boogey Islam is a grand manipulation that is working only too well. Absent meaningful news it continues.
We need to understand this:
Following the well publicized bombing at a Coptic Mass on New Year’s, there was not only a huge outcry against the perpetrators but a very significant civil action in the streets by Muslims to protect Coptic Christians as they celebrated Christmas Mass on the Orthodox calendar. This happened a little more than two weeks before the larger and more sweeping uprising that we are seeing to oust Hosni Mubarak. The spirit of these two movements is continuous.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/3365.aspx
Mubarak's position is unique here. To the West, (and we should play devil's advocate every now and then) the Egyptian government he leads has been a stalwart ally in the so-called war on terror, has played a crucial role in stabilizing the region, and most importantly has been a vital partner both in sustaining the Egypt-Israeli Camp David Peace Treaty and acting as an Arab intermediary in the derivative Middle East Peace Process.
The West believes (erroneously perhaps) that Mubarak's untimely demise, without a secure regime in his wake and a suitable figurehead at the helm, could inspire a politically more confident Muslim Brotherhood that is likely to ally with its ideological offspring Hamas and oppose US and Israeli policy..
With painful images of bloody street battles fed live through Al Jazeera and other networks, the West's approach becomes more untenable.
As a result a compromise solution is being drawn up by the Obama admin in order to keep the regime intact, without Mubarak.
This is unlikely to appease the pro-democracy protesters who want an overhaul of the entire system.
Suleiman fits the bill of what the West is looking for - a military man who has connections within the Egyptian army, understands the Israeli-Palestinian equation, may make a few political concessions and knows how to deal with the Brotherhood.
Did you notice the one thing that both pro and anti-Mubarak forces agreed upon…..they hate the US. Just wait until we’ve rejected oil altogether……they’ll be screaming we’ve abandoned them.
Doesn’t matter what we do.
We are faulted for dealing with tyrants like Saddam Hussein and Mubarak while we are faulted for not dealing with tyrants like Assad of Syria and Ahmadinejad.
I really wish the people who claim to be patriotic actually were. we can do better, or else we will do much worse.
Only the fall of the Shah is comparable to what is happening in Egypt because it was by the result of an uprising of the people across the nation and not by foreign interference which in the latter cases were initiated by the US/us.
Persia - someday I hope we will relinquish the name "Iran" - moved from a relatively dark period in its long history to one of the darkest under the so called Islamic Republic of Iran in which the regime misuses the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition for purposes and uses Allah in its own Dorian Gray image. It is heartbreaking to speak of own native land in this unavoidable manner.
Regarding Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hossein, they never advanced beyond the "naked ape" status.
Is it the dictators that you admire and/or the masses that you have no faith in?
Why on earth did he bring in the Muslim Brotherhood when we know that their beliefs, fromt heir founding in 1928, call for destruction of the Western World and Infidels?
From ages 6-10 Barack Obama lived with his mother, step-father and step-sister Maya in Indonesia under Suharto and saw firsthand the fear of the regime that shaped every move of the population.
He returned to Hawaii in 1971 but surely the 1998 uprising that pushed Suharto out after 3 decades of ‘democratic’ rule is a very present history in his mind today. I also believe the Cairo speech was very important.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANk9qydfGe4
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-cairo-university-6-04-09
"Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today. People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind, heart, and soul. This tolerance is essential for religion to thrive, but it is being challenged in many different ways.
Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one's own faith by the rejection of another's. The richness of religious diversity must be upheld – whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt. ...
Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it."