Friday, February 11, 2011

Dissed.

So Barry supposedly had a frosty phone call with King Abdullah over his unhandling of our unpolicy on the situation in Egypt. Dissed! Over the phone! All that bowing and scraping for nothing.

Meanwhile, out here where we actually grow the arugula, we don't much worry about the opinion of any king that doesn't live at Graceland, thank you very much.
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25 comments:

Zendo Deb said...

Please don't tell me that you grow arugula in your garden.

Tomatoes. Onions. Garlic. Lettuce sure.

Anything but Arugula.

9:08 AM, February 11, 2011
Josh Kruschke said...

Barry is an ediot.
I'm pretty, sure Mubarak was going to step down and turn things over to the milltary yesterday up untill barry opened his big dumb yap. and adressed the America, to that side of the world it would of looked like Mubarak was our lap dog if he had of steped down.
In Mubarak's eyes he had to show back bone and not step down or lose face.

Sigh.... :-(
Josh

9:31 AM, February 11, 2011
Zendo Deb said...

Yeah, the whole world would be better if he would just STFU. (I feel that way every time I watch one of Dear Leader's press conferences.)

Since he doesn't know how to do anything but run a political campaign, that is what he is doing, mostly.

And it is mostly coming out wrong, because the world isn't really one long political campaign.

9:53 AM, February 11, 2011
BobG said...

I guess that means he'll have to go over there and bow, apologize, and kowtow some more.

10:04 AM, February 11, 2011
Bram said...

Can we drill for oil and build new nuke plants now? Please? That would make all this stuff fun and quaint.

10:10 AM, February 11, 2011
Anonymous said...

Can we put a muzzle on Barry!? Lap dogs really should be silent.

10:58 AM, February 11, 2011
GuardDuck said...

Once you've bowed down to a man, you've always bowed down to him.

Can't take that back.

12:45 PM, February 11, 2011
Dwight Brown said...

Arugula? Isn't that the sound a submarine makes before it dives?

12:59 PM, February 11, 2011
staghounds said...

Why drill and build plants?

We have a perfectly adequate navy and Saudi oil moves by sea.

2:02 PM, February 11, 2011
Kristophr said...

Gee ... the Saudis don't want another Iran in their backyards? Who woulda thunk it?

The Russians have already set him at the kiddie table and fed him a Happy Meal ( START II Treaty, sorry ... ).

4:42 PM, February 11, 2011
Ancient Woodsman said...

But the kiddie table is out on the porch, and that door to the kitchen locks.

The entire neighborhood is plain sick & tired of that whiny Obama kid banging on the door & screaming to be let in when it's time for the grown-ups to have some serious fun.

That Caulfield kid couldn't figure out that doing adult things just doesn't make you one. Will Barry ever 'get it', or will he too be stuck as the teenager at the kiddie table, marginalized by the same adult world he so longs?

5:19 PM, February 11, 2011
Discobobby said...

Of course the Saudi princes would be upset - they see Mubarak in the mirror every morning. I would be a little disappointed if our suggestions to the Egyptian military didn't scare the pants off Abdullah. He can be as frosty as he wants, but pushing Mubarak aside in favor of a secular military "transition" government was the best endgame the US could get. The protesters go home happy, the Army is seen as the protector of the people and the guarantor of stability and the state, and everybody gets about 4-6 months to figure out what's next. It's that "what's next" part that's the harder game to play.

Abdullah can be as pissy as he wants to be over the phone. We got the outcome we wanted and he didn't. It's turning that short-term win into a long-term, stable, secular democracy that's tricky. But by not pushing the protestors into the arms of the radicals (in fact marginalizing them) and setting the Army up as the Good Guys, the US established the best conditions for that to happen.

You play the cards you're dealt. In the short term, the US played quite well. The other outcomes would have really, really sucked.

5:26 PM, February 11, 2011
Anonymous said...

"The Prez, Veep and SecState have problems."

"Not on same page?"

"Not quite."

"Not in same book?"

"Nope. Try, "Couldn't find the library."

5:40 PM, February 11, 2011
Josh Kruschke said...

Discobobby -
"Abdullah can be as pissy as he wants to be over the phone."

Mubarak wouldn't need to act pissy if Barry would shut up and stop acting the big dog. Mubarak's not just acting pissy over the phone he is causing the deaths of the Egyptian people and an unstable country, because he needs to puff up he's chest and not look like he's capitulation to the US.

Some times the best way to get what you want is to not do anything.

Josh

6:49 PM, February 11, 2011
Anonymous said...

What I'm curious about is the fact that we're hearing about this phone call at all. Not a press conference, but a call between heads of state. Is the Oval Office security really this porous? Is everyone an unnamed source? Because I don't see Barry publicizing a tense phone call where he looks bad.

Antibubba

9:58 PM, February 11, 2011
Mad Saint Jack said...

So today we learn that a Military Coup is a good thing...


That's different.

10:05 PM, February 11, 2011
Discobobby said...

Joshkie-
I think you're misunderstanding the sequence of events and who is who. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Barry-fan, this was well-played by professionals at all levels of gov/mil, including the Egyptians. The politicians tend to STFU and listen to the experts when the crap hits the fan. This is not always a good thing, but it can be.

Please tell me how forcing the entire E/Army chain of command to make a shoot/don't shoot decision at dawn in T/Square doesn't end in disaster for all parties and leave a vacuum that can only be filled by the islamists. Even the Mubarak loyalists figured that math out. Also describe an outcome more stable that also marginalizes the extremists both you and I despise and how you propose to get that done.

Antibubba- Both sides leak. Both may for different reasons, and to different audiences.

Mad Saint Jack- Hey, if it's the least-bad outcome, you play the hand you're dealt. Sometimes killing the guy trying to break down your front door is the least-bad outcome. Sometimes letting him piss his pants and run away is the least-bad outcome. Better a coup and time bought than the Muslim Brotherhood. Because after the E/Army, that IS the next institution in waiting.

Jesus, I'm no Barry-buddy, but a little dispassionate analysis might be useful here.

11:33 PM, February 11, 2011
Beaumont said...

Thanks to Tam, I'm imagining a world in which Elvis indulged his taste for politics and beat McCain for the nomination. Prez Presley would have been the first POTUS to have a Detective Special in his hip pocket when hosting various foreign despots at state dinners. (Very polite despots, no doubt).

wv: belis (one must hiss the 's'): Barry's passive-aggressive version of "bellicose".

1:32 PM, February 12, 2011
Steve Skubinna said...

...we don't much worry about the opinion of any king that doesn't live at Graceland, thank you very much.

Just a minor correction: Bruce Campbell doesn't live at Graceland.

3:26 PM, February 12, 2011
Tam said...

LOL! :D

3:27 PM, February 12, 2011
Josh Kruschke said...

The reports where coming in all day that he was going to step down. Then barry made a speach at a school I believe where he said this was going to be for the best that Mubarak turn over the power to the army. This was before Mubarak made the speach. To the Arab world this look like your doing the others bidding. Then Mubarak make his speach where he doesn't step down totaly, but only surindered part of his power. Crowd gets upset, Mubarak chages mind the next morning. Army in charge.

Ether Mubarak was throwing a fake at the US to make Barry look bad, or he changed his mind twice.

By the way Mubarak has only been encharge cause the army wanted him in there, and they didn't want to have to run the infrustructure of the government.

Josh

3:33 PM, February 12, 2011
Kristophr said...

Discobobby:

I suspect this was all the military's show in the first place.

It is no coincidence, I think, that the military threw in with the protesters after Mubarek broke Egyptian hunta tradition and tried to set up a new Monarchy with his non-military officer son as a new heir-apparent.

The Saudis knew exactly what was happening, and told Obama, in no uncertain terms, to STFU ( especially about supporting an Islamic radical group ) while adults were fixing things.

3:41 PM, February 12, 2011
Discobobby said...

It was the E/Army's call from the moment they displaced internal security services from the streets and placed themselves between the protestors and the regime. The content of the speech was just as much a surprise to the E/Army as it was Barry. Blaiming "foreign influence" is a tactic used by everybody from Castro to Chavez to explain failure. The people might buy it sometimes, but you just can't bluff your own army with it when you promised them something else. Barry had precious little to do with how the E/Army reacted when they didn't hear the speech they were promised. To their credit, it only took them about 6 hours to reach a "Oh, HELL no!" consensus and shuffle the old boy off. And these were loyalists, mind you. If you think Mubarak gave a damn what Barry thinks or says when he delivered the "I will survive" speech, you're deluding yourself. When you're 85, have been in power 30 years and you're used to getting your damn way, you make bad bluffs. The E/Army called it, not Barry. But the E/Army didn't do it in a vacuum. Research how much mil to mil communication alone there has been between the two nations in the last week or so. Then add State, other players and the spooky stuff. You create the conditions for your best case outcome by playing the game and filtering out the noise.

4:56 PM, February 12, 2011
Will said...

Beaumont,
Theodore R. and both Reagan and wife are said to have been armed in the White House. Theo had a pistol come loose somehow during a big affair and skitter across the floor. Not clear if a pocket tore or it slipped down from his waistband. Think it made the papers.

12:36 AM, February 13, 2011
Josh Kruschke said...

DB-

Yes, Mubarak was doing what he was told to by the military. The Speach he gave the night before was supposed by the one he gave the next morning. With or with out the approval of the army he needed to save face.

I this just my feeling on the mater.

Josh

5:25 AM, February 13, 2011

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