Reply #58: oh nonsense - but people should read the articles themselves

[Douglas Carpenter]

link:

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/obama-s-betrayal-as-goes-mubarak-so-goes-u-s-might-1.340244

Obama's betrayal / As goes Mubarak, so goes U.S. might

by By Ari Shavit

Obama's betrayal of Hosni Mubarak is not just the betrayal of a moderate Egyptian president who remained loyal to the United States, promoted stability and encouraged moderation. Obama's betrayal of Mubarak symbolizes the betrayal of every strategic ally in the Third World. Throughout Asia, Africa and South America, leaders are now looking at what is going on between Washington and Cairo.

Everyone grasps the message: America's word is worthless; an alliance with America is unreliable; American has lost it. A result of this understanding will be a turn toward China, Russia and regional powers such as Iran, Turkey and Brazil.

The second result of this insight will be a series of international conflagrations that will result from the loss of America's deterrent power. But the general result will be America's rapid disappearance as a superpower.

The policy setback which Washington will experience will be no less dramatic than the regime debacle which Cairo is experiencing. Barack Obama is, indeed, poised to make history. Should he not change direction, he will be remembered as the U.S. president who undid the American empire with his own hands.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/obama-s-betrayal-as-goes-mubarak-so-goes-u-s-might-1.340244

or from his other article....damn this sounds like vintage Charles Krauthammer - the Neoconservative - not some progressive.

There is one answer: The West's position is not a moral one that reflects a real commitment to human rights. The West's position reflects the adoption of Jimmy Carter's worldview: kowtowing to benighted, strong tyrants while abandoning moderate, weak ones.

Carter's betrayal of the Shah brought us the ayatollahs, and will soon bring us ayatollahs with nuclear arms. The consequences of the West's betrayal of Mubarak will be no less severe. It's not only a betrayal of a leader who was loyal to the West, served stability and encouraged moderation. It's a betrayal of every ally of the West in the Middle East and the developing world. The message is sharp and clear: The West's word is no word at all; an alliance with the West is not an alliance. The West has lost it. The West has stopped being a leading and stabilizing force around the world.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-arab-revolution-and-western-decline-1.340967