Mary Leverett served honorably in the USMC, and in the U.S. Naval Reserve {Desert Shield/Desert Storm vet}, spent 9 years as a federal civil servant, & now lives in the Houston area with her husband.
Jimmy Carter, in his ongoing quest for relevance, is calling for President Mubarak to step down, much the same way he contributed to the downfall of the Shah of Iran. Those of us old enough to remember what happened when Khomeini returned to Iran to lead the Islamic revolution do NOT look forward to a repeat of that disaster. 444 days of captivity, and the loss of U.S. military personnel in the poorly planned and executed ‘rescue attempt’ 172 days into the hostage situation that was hamstrung from the White House on down. Carter’s weakness, dithering, and overall ineptitude in the face of this attack on the U.S. caused harm that America is STILL paying the price for to this day.
Carter must be given credit, however grudgingly, for the brokering of The Camp David Accords. Not that it did Israel, Egypt or the U.S. any long-term favors, but the goal was admirable. Unfortunately, it cost Anwar Sadat his life; Carter recently noted the day of Anwar Sadat’s assassination was “one of the worst days of my life.” I don’t believe Anwar Sadat would have claimed that day as a ‘highlight’, either.
Carter would be hard-pressed to find a way to blame Israel for the current situation, though it’s easy to envision him, in his mocked-up Oval Office at his presidential library, sitting around trying to figure out how to dump the blame on the Israelis.
Carter’s weakness finds a mirror in today’s White House; Obama refuses to take the proverbial bull by the horns and DO SOMETHING; while Carter engaged in endless agonizing, Obama appears to blow off the consequences of the instability moving like wildfire through the region, as mere irritants.
The attitude of the current occupant of the White House is what we Americans have come to accept: aloof, disdainful, lecturing and hectoring President Mubarak. One wonders, were such problems to happen here, would other ‘world leaders’ come to Obama’s aid? Or would they tut-tut, and go on about the business of their governments? While Cairo is in what appears to be a state of siege, with President Mubarak holding on by his fingernails, Obama is too busy hosting a party for David Axelrod to offer any concrete solutions.
At least this time around, Obama will find it difficult to blame Israel; surely Benjamin Netanyahu is breathing a sigh of relief.
It seems Libya and Saudi Arabia are maintaining close eyes on the region’s upheavals, though their heavy-handedness in “normal” times might stand them well now.
Perhaps this time the U.S. will remove our people before others have the chance to take them hostage; do we REALLY want another 444+ days of wondering if our people will stay safe? In actuality, it would be more like 719 days that any American hostages would be held. Do wereally want to go through that again? This time around, there’s very good reason to doubt that we’d get anything back but bodies.
Looking at a map of the Middle East and northern Africa, one wonders at the scale of desperation that is pushing people from Tunisia, to Egypt, to Yemen and beyond to suddenly ignite; thankfully, other than “our” overall collective guilt for being “The Great Satan,” it doesn’t yet appear that the U.S. is the major focus of these uprisings. It seems the most pressing issue is that of food supplies; Tunisia was ignited by a fruit seller’s self-immolation. The next anticipated “reason” for rioting is water, something all would hopefully agree is vastly more important than oil.
At the end of the day, it’s all too likely that groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood will win now and wiggle their way to positions of power; unfortunately for the U.S. and Israel, such groups have already declared war on US.
The bright spot in the comparisons of Carter’s and Obama’s self-indulgence is that Carter’s paucity of spine gave us 8 years of Ronald Reagan optimism and belief in American exceptionalism. One can only hope, in the purest, most selfless sense of the word, that Obama’s lack of interest will bring someone comparable to Reagan to the White House in 2013.
