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| Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain meet with Egyptian Vice President Mohamed Elbaradei (Egyptian Presidency) |
Egyptians are not only refusing to cave to U. S. threats, but have called out McCain and Graham for interfering in Egypt's internal affairs, being foolish and, in McCain's case, for being "a senile old man." Ouch. This appears to be a case where foreigners are willing to do work Americans won't do.
From the New York Sun:
Spokesmen for both the [Egyptian] presidency and the prime minister immediately took umbrage, joined by an array of press commentators, who accused the two Americans, Senators McCain and Graham, of “manufacturing facts” and of “unwelcome interference in Egypt’s internal affairs.” The flagship Egyptian newspaper, Al Ahram, said the senators engaged in “foolish statements that are unacceptable.”The McCain-Graham-Obama ham-handed interference in Egypt bodes ill for U.S. interests.
Following a press conference in which Mr. McCain threatened sanctions, the leader of the Egyptian Popular Current party, Hamdeen Sabahi, who is a co-leader of the ruling National Salvation Front, described Mr. McCain as “a senile old man.”
. . .
With the second most powerful army after Israel, Egypt is a major factor in the search for peace, as is being demonstrated by the second revolutionary government, which, recognizing the danger of the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist Islamic factions, is moving to isolate Hamas in the Gaza district.
A sense of how Egypt sees things came yesterday from a scion of the fallen Hosni Mubarak old guard, Amr Moussa, who served a decade as Egyptian foreign minister and another as secretary general of the League of Arab States. Addressing via a television interview Senators McCain and Graham he said: “Neither of you are delegated to open the dictionary on our behalf to designate a coup from a revolution. Of course we did choose Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood companions via the ballot box, but that does not exempt them from consequences of criminal behavior.”
Recalling the Richard Nixon episode, Mr. Moussa noted that ‘’The United States was the first to remove its elected president when he faced lesser charges that those now weighing over the leadership the Muslim Brotherhood.”
To America the loss, if the confrontation gets out of hand, would be larger than Egypt’s. It could plunge America into an era like that which obtained between 1952 and 1970, when Gamal Abdel Nasser used Egypt’s clout to fan Arab Nationalism and anti-Americanism across Africa and the Arab world.
2 comments:
They certainly have McCain's number. Both of those RINOs need to go, but McCain's the worst of the two. He's spent far too long capitalizing on his past - and while a certain degree of that's acceptable, given his endurance as a POW, he's gone way beyond his due.
And Lindsey Grahmnesty has no business in orifice.
Bet you all the money in my pocket that the Repub establishment tries to push Christie as the next Pres. candidate.
I think you're right, Max. And they already have someone they normally despise to push Christie on the right: Ann Coulter. Heh.
The reason that McCain and Graham are supposedly pushing this is a law congress passed that does not allow funds to go to countries that have suffered a coup. The Obama administration hasn't labeled this a coup officially, so it isn't running afoul of the law.
Interesting that McCain and Graham are so concerned with application of laws on the books that they are supporting legalization for people who have broken the laws on the books rather than following the penalty prescribed in the law.
My own view is that legalization has a point if you secure the border, but then I'm not the one yammering about following the letter of the law regarding Egypt.
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