[What are they smoking?]
McCain says the time for Mubarak to leave has come
WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain says the United States has to do “a better job of encouraging democracy” in the Middle East in light of the public uprising in Egypt.
The Arizona Republican tells CBS’s “The Early Show” that U.S. officials have correctly called for an orderly transition away from President Hosni Mubarak. McCain said the situation in Egypt is “fraught with danger” and said he worries about “the influence of extremist organizations.”
The Republican, who met with Obama at the White House Wednesday, said nevertheless that Washington must push for free elections, even if they result in lifting Islamist elements. McCain said that American officials also have to be concerned about “the threat of a repeat of the election in Gaza,” where Hamas, considered a terrorist organization, emerged with newfound powers.
Interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” McCain said “the time has come” for Mubarak to work out a transition of power that “has the army, pro-democracy elements and others in a transition government.”
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“The best opportunity for a pro-democracy government and not a radical, Islamic government is an open, transparent process,This virus spreading through the Middle East proves the human yearnings, and probably the only place you won’t see the demonstrations is Iraq.”
[He is trying to have it both ways. Calls for democracy but not real democracy. The only way to insure that the MB is kept out is not to hoild elections.
Secondly, McCain is supposed to be a friend of Israel. How can he not know that this would endanger Israel?]
Turmoil in Egypt Divides Neocons Over ‘Democracy First’ Agenda
[Remember, Neocons are liberals. Anyone who advocates democracy in Egypt is no friend of Israel. First of all, the rioters hate our guts. What good can come from giving them power. There is no way any regime change can do better at feeding the masses or providing employment for the college grads. So of what value is the exercise? And so on.
I favour conrolled reform but not free elections.]
Israel must attack Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, NOW! This is Do or Die time!!
Yep. Those guys. Relatively better than these. How did you think otherwise?
Of course there could be an advantage to the MB being in charge and abrogating the peace treaty. Israel would be justified in taking the Sinai back.
you meen this arab gang of anti-semites who closed both eyes while hamas filled gaza with iranian weapons
Shouldn’t be trusted in traffic.
Yes. He just hasn’t yet thought things through.
Well, classical liberals.
Not liberals in the contemporary American sense; i.e., latent socialists.
A neo-conservative is simply a former liberal who’s been mugged
by reality.
In some cases, NOT ENOUGH reality.
But then, all habits (good ones and bad ones) die hard.
I understand the sentiment, so I appreciate the assertion, but our adversaries may not — and I’m reluctant to give them ammunition by (superficially) conceding them the “high ground,” in suggesting we’re “against democracy.”
I’d put the case this way:
Properly constituted, democracy [“rule by The People”] is a fine thing.
But it doesn’t just “appear” where it never was before, fully grown and gowned, like Athena from the forehead of Zeus.
It takes a long time for it to find and establish itself in a culture. It’s been 800 years since the Magna Carta, and a lot of water’s flowed under the bridge since then.
The West had to go through mucho changes to get to the point where debates like those that characterized the Constitutional Convention were even conceivable. And that was 220+ years ago. Egypt has never had a taste of anything like that; it’s never been to first base. Never even been up at-bat. Try visualizing even the educated elite of Egypt conducting discussions on the order of those in the Federalist Papers. Your head will swim.
To say (or imply) that the essence of “democracy” is nothing more than simply the electoral process is myopic and stupid.
FROM THAT PERSPECTIVE, “DEMOCRACY” WOULD CONSIST OF TWO WOLVES & A LAMB ‘VOTING’ ON WHAT TO HAVE FOR DINNER.
No doubt, that works for wolves (maybe even for some lambs, too, depending on the nature of their pathology, but that’s another drosh), but anybody who genuinely believes that you can impose the institutional trappings of democracy on a region or a people without first establishing its fundamental cultural & social underpinnings is kidding himself. Might as well expect astroturf to sprout roots. Your cheekbones will sprout grass long before that.
Democracy requires the rule of law, and popular respect for it as necessary and reasonable.
Democracy requires an independent judiciary that is commonly regarded as generally sincere, impartial, reliable, and fair.
Democracy requires an unshackled popular press that carries a burden to provide a thoughtful, accurate, nongovernmental, accounting of the events of the day — including the activities of the government itself.
Democracy requires an ethos in the culture that embraces the principle of compromise: the proposition of considering whether an opponent’s claims may have validity, and if so, accepting half-a-loaf in return for a return to general amity.
Democracy requires putting a premium on the value of keeping one’s word as the basis for all contractual obligations in business, personal and political matters.
There’s more, but without these kinds of things, it’s nutty to speak of “free elections.”
You don’t put a bandage on a wound that hasn’t first been cleaned. The very purpose of the bandage is to keep out contaminants which would retard the healing process. Bandaging an uncleaned wound will make the wound appreciably WORSE: by encouraging its already existing contaminants to fester in an airless environment. Insisting on “free elections” in Gaza was bound to have disastrous consequences. It actually legitimized — sanctified — the most pernicious elements in Pali ‘society.’
In Egypt — which leaves so much bigger tracks — it would be much worse.
The idea is imbecilic and dangerous.
People who think that way shouldn’t be trusted in traffic. They aren’t safe there.
And nobody else on the road at the same time is either.
Very true, which is why it is so laughable that neo-cons are considered stooges for Israel.
I completely agree with Ted.
No one cares about Mubarak. We just want the army to remain in control
yamit, it is stupid to support a dead man like this piece of garbish named mubarak
When I claimed in several of my comments during the 2008 election cycle that I saw little difference between Bush, McCain or Obama: this is what I meant. He is stupid, then most American presidents were intellectually challenged.
In a country of over 300 million, tell me America cannot produce a higher caliber of leadership than most past and current presidents and their political challengers?