High Ground Underground

Walk Like an Egyptian? A poll of Egyptians by MEMRI is rather depressing, showing a majority aligning with the overall philosophies of the Muslim Brotherhood – sharia, elimination of Israel, etc.(see/hear Prager’s Feb. 7 hour 1). And Obama says that there are “strains of ideology” in the Muslim Brotherhood that are radical/jihadi? The definition of “strain” is a trace or narrow streak – both implying minute – not the case here. It is basically one and the same as Hamas. The Egyptian revolution was a failure of U.S. intelligence. And the intelligence agency apparently was getting its information on events there from the news networks. On top of that, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said before Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.” He apparently hasn’t read recent (this month) statements by their leader praising their model, Iran, jihad against the US & Israel, etc. Now the Tunisian & Egyptian governments have fallen, Libya appear...

Bush was belittled for his statement that yearning for freedom from tyranny is a universal phenomenon that we should be supportive of. The Muslim world was supposedly a prime counterexample, with only a single exception – Turkey, which belongs to NATO. Maybe it was culturally genetic, after millennia of pharaohs, shahs, etc. Just like the tsars of Russia to which they are returning after a brief fling with democracy. Then came the massive protests in Iran, and in the last couple weeks Tunisia (leader ousted), Egypt (outcome pending – at the least a change in 8 months), Sudan, Oman & Jordan. The most common denominators seem on the surface to be weariness of oppressive economic, social and political conditions under multi-generational totalitarian sectarian (Egypt et al) or theocratic (Iran) rule. But those were also the bogeymen that were manipulated to bring the Bolsheviks, Nazis and Mullahs to power, replacing one form of tyranny with another. The people knew only they wan...

Pres. Obama’s SOTU speech was more of his best oratory, following on the Tucson shooting memorial speech. Following his “shellacking” in Nov., he seems to be verbally rising to the challenge, and perhaps firing the first shots (oops! -- censor that!) of the 2012 campaign. There were plenty of lofty goals & American cheerleading (for a change) we can all agree on, as evidenced by some bipartisan applause. They hearken back to the “hope & change” mantra (which has produced only the worst of the latter). But the devil is in the details, and while he gave lip service to free enterprise and the deficit crisis, his policies boiled down to continuing significant government “investment” & meddling, and no significant cuts in the deficit. And there the “bipartisanship” ended. And his record of delivering any positive results for all his “change” in the 1st 2 years is abysmal, as even many of his formerly ardent supporters are lamenting. The gap between his words, actions and r...