It may not be the equivalent of the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-81 or the subsequent seizures of American citizens in Lebanon, but the Obama administration has a hostage crisis of sorts on its hands, and how it handles it will be of considerable importance not only to the president’s standing but the country’s.
This crisis has come about because the transitional regime in Egypt has decided to put on trial 19 Americans and two dozen others who are guilty of the apparent crime of trying to develop civil society and democracy. Seven of those defendants, who will go on trial on Friday, are actually in Egypt and unable to leave as long as the proceedings go on. Several have sought refuge at the U.S. embassy, like Cardinal Mindszenty, who lived in the U.S. embassy in Budapest for 15 years to escape Communist persecution. Those held hostage include Sam LaHood, son of a cabinet member, who is head of the International Republican Institute’s Cairo office.
It is hard to imagine a more direct challenge to American power than this brazen decision to try our citizens on trumped up charges. If any of these NGO workers wind up in prison, it will be a permanent blot not only on the Egyptian government but also on the Obama administration for letting it happen. Put simply, nations do not act like this if they fear American power. Clearly, we are not inducing enough respect even in a country such as Egypt which is dependent on more than $1.5 billion in annual U.S. aid.
President Obama must intervene personally if necessary to resolve this crisis and get the authorities in Cairo to let our people go. Anything less would make us a laughingstock and a certain target of more affronts.
Wait a minute, is the Military Governing Council (in alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood) building apartments for Zionist Jews in Al Quds? Ahah! We thought not. This is either, as the Obama administration has suggested a misunderstanding due to the impetuous actions of a confused policeman in the Cairo traffic constabulary or, as it will suggest, the understandable result of years of United States support for regimes thwarting the peaceful and progressive yearnings of Egyptian's masses. Apologies to come. Commentary does not want to see the egregious display of self-abasement of an actual Obama intervention in these circumstances.
In my humble opinion, this is just another example, in an almost infinitely long list, of why it is extremely foolish to involve yourself in a Muslim country. Instead, why not go out into the woods and play with racoons who have rabies? This would be a helluva lot more fun. By the way, why are we giving so much money in aid to Egypt every year anyway? To what point? To what end? Someone once said,(I paraphrase), "Foreign aid is mostly poor people in rich countries being forced to send money to rich people in poor countries." That statement makes a lot more sense to me than the idea of nation-building/compassionate giving/goodwill-fostering/strategic-giving or whatever. I will guarantee you this folks, we could give Egypt $50 billion dollars a year for ten years and we would STILL have probably zilch to show for it as far as any benefits for America. So can someone please explain to me, why are we giving ANY money to Egypt? I do however, support giving aid to Israel as long as they are threatened by their neighbors; which unfortunately it seems that Israel is going to be threatened by her neighbors from now until the end of the world. May God have mercy and please protect Israel from the wolves all around her.
This will drag on indefinitely. They learned their lessons from the Iranian crisis…a weak US president, an equally useless Secretary of State and a SecDef tasked to cut the military is no different than 1979-80. Internally it serves the Religious vs secular politics by focusing on an external enemy while the country goes broke. n nTiming is everything. Obama knows nothing except "send money" and abandon Israel's western front—two objectives that might succeed before November, but if not achieved he will have a huge blot to overcome for re-election. Both sides understand this and the Egyptians will ratchet up their demands as summer hits. n nIf it drags on and a strong Republican is in sight with the likelihood of us getting Bolton and West at State and Defense, look for an attitude adjustment and a strengthening of US-Israeli ties.
They're merely waiting for Panetta to swoop in again and sweeten the pot. What's it to be this time? More Apache helicopters? A missile frigate?