President Obama, say the 'D-Word' It's incredible, really.
The president of the United States can't bring himself to talk about democracy in the Middle East. He can dance around it, use euphemisms, throw out words like "freedom" and "tolerance" and "non-violent" and especially "reform," but he can't say the one word that really matters: democracy.
How did this happen? After all, in his famous 2009 Cairo speech to the Muslim world, Obama spoke the word loudly and clearly - at least once. "The fourth issue that I will address is democracy," he declared, before explaining that while the United States won't impose its own system, it was committed to governments that "reflect the will of the people... "No matter where it takes hold," the president concluded, "government of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power. " ElBaradei urges U.S. to abandon Mubarak. Why is America so afraid? - Egyptian Protests. This originally appeared at MondoWeiss I’m as thrilled as anyone by what I see in the Cairo streets, but when I turn on American television I see only grim faces.
Robert Gibbs looked frightened during his delayed press briefing yesterday afternoon; he didn’t know what to say. Obama’s comments last night were equivocal and opaque: I’m with Mubarak, for now. This is his 9/11 — the day Arabs blindsided a president. I thought this is what he wanted for the Arab world: democracy! Matthews’s other interpreter was Howard Fineman. As if eastern Europe changed without similar destruction. So racism against Arabs is shutting down the American mind once again. Why is America so afraid? Because we are seeing a giant leap in Arab power, in which the people of the largest Arab nation demand that they be allowed to fulfill their potential. The grimness on the faces of American Establishment figures reflects the greatest threat to authority, the crumbling of an existing order. Whose side is Obama on anyway? - Egyptian Protests. A Tiananmen moment may be swiftly approaching in Cairo – except this time the tanks that could crush the movement for Egyptian democracy in a bloodbath were bought and paid for by U.S. dollars.
And this time, our government has the power to prevent brutal repression and bloodshed and stand with the Egyptian people’s just and long overdue demands. The Egyptian people are fighting, not only to end the 30-year reign of dictator Mubarak, but for democracy. So far, our government has continued its de facto support for the Mubarak regime by paying lip service to the need for “reform” at the same time that it lauds Mubarak as an ally and source of “stability” in the Middle East.
President Obama and his spokespeople have carefully avoided the fundamental issue. The Egyptian people are not asking their government to reform itself. What may stand in the way? The whole world is watching. Joel Beinin is Donald J.