White House prepares for life after Mubarak

[riverwalker]

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/31/white_house_prepares_for_life_after_mubarak


White House prepares for life after Mubarak
Posted By Josh Rogin Monday, January 31, 2011 - 3:33 PM

The National Security Staff discussed how the Obama administration might approach a future Egyptian government if President Hosni Mubarak steps down with a group of foreign policy experts in a White House meeting on Monday morning. But the Obama administration believes that Washington's fingerprints shouldn't be seen anywhere near what they increasing expect will be the end of Mubarak's rule.

The Cable spoke with three of the experts who attended Monday morning's session, which included Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, NSS Senior Director for Multilateral Engagement Samantha Power and NSS Senior Director Dan Shapiro. The experts inside the meeting represented a cross section of views in Washington and included several members of the bipartisan Egypt Working Group, a group that has been pushing for more administration clarity on Egypt policy over the recent months.
All three participants who spoke with The Cable said that the meeting was intense and constructive, that a real debate over the path forward for U.S. policy ensued, and that the White House staff leading the meeting indicated -- but did not say outright -- that they believed Mubarak was on his way out and that the administration was preparing for what comes next. <snip>

(I would have loved to been a fly on the wall in that room. The fact that Samantha Power was there, that it was "intense and constructive" is encouraging)

[ananda]

1. I want to hear the conversation where they talk about...

... what life will be like without a USA presence in the ME.

[CTyankee]

2. Not gonna happen in the near future, I think...it's HOW we have a presence that

matters...