Diplomatic Scramble?

NY Times posted an article I found interesting, "Diplomatic Scramble As Ally Is Pushed To Exit".
By MARK LANDLER, HELENE COOPER and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

"Last Sunday at 2 p.m., a blue-and-white Air Force jet left Andrews Air Force Base bound for Cairo. On board was Frank G. Wisner, an adroit ex-diplomat whom President Obama had asked hours before to undertake a supremely delicate mission: nudging President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt out of power."

Why is Obama sending ex-diplomats to quietly nudge a leader of another nation out of power? How far up the scale of puppet government does Egypt go? It's like he's firing some Secretary within the US government.

"But it is also one of political calculations, in Cairo and Washington, which were upset repeatedly as the crowds swelled. And it is the story of a furious scramble by the Obama White House — right up until Mr. Obama’s call Tuesday night for change to begin “now” — to catch up with a democracy movement unfolding so rapidly that Washington came close to being left behind."

Why is the self-proclaimed beacon of democracy, the US, catching up with democracy? We should be cheering it on at every opportunity, obviously except when it involves our totalitarian allies. And what are our diplomats scrambling for? There should be nothing surprising about what is happening in Egypt, considering Tunisia a week earlier. But just like the fall of the USSR, our intelligence agencies are caught unprepared again.

"At the Saturday meeting, the officials also agreed that Mrs. Clinton would start calling for “an orderly transition” when she taped a round of interviews for the Sunday talk programs. Administration officials were already smarting from not coming out more fully in support of the protesters earlier. In particular, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had been criticized for an interview with “NewsHour” on PBS on Thursday, in which he answered “no” when the host, Jim Lehrer, asked if the time had come for Mr. Mubarak to go."

Who are we, or for that matter, anyone outside of Egypt, to determine how a people chose exercise their political choice?

"American officials had also been in close contact with Vice President Suleiman, who may be playing a particularly pivotal role in managing the transition of power. American and Egyptian officials who know him well describe him as both a cunning operator and Mr. Mubarak’s closest aide. He is also considered the figure with the largest base of support in Egypt’s security forces because his work as intelligence chief built him deep ties with the internal security police and the military."

So this is Mubarak's his successor? Omar Suleiman. He is a CIA asset closely involved in our rendition program. Not a stalwart for transparency, human rights, nor democracy.

"And for the United States, can an Egypt without Mr. Mubarak serve American interests in the Middle East?"

So what are American interests in the Middle East? Oil? Regional Control? Religious Crusade? Protector of Israel?

Egypt has been a loyal projection of American military power into the region; and ally on several fronts, but most recently as a favorite destination of CIA renditions. It has received the second highest amount of US foreign aid behind Israel. Being a powerful military in the region and neighbor to Israel, one may assume that this aid pacifies any potential aggression against Israel. But our relationship with Egypt is deeper than that. This aid is almost entirely in the form of armaments. American tax dollars given to Egypt with the stipulation that it be used to buy American military weapons to build it arsenal. Industrial welfare payments washed via international aid.

So Washington is loosing one of its prized cloaks covering the large amount of corporate welfare to our Military-Industrial Complex. Besides the bureaucrats in Washington, Wall Street and the Pentagon may be scrambling soon. One less dictator to make billions of dollars off of. Main Street however, should start cheering. This is potentially billions of dollars saved, hopefully destined for domestic use.

Main Street can learn something from the streets of Cairo, the power of grassroots mobilization.