PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - George Will nails it again: Egypt, USA, Israel

strelnik · #9 02-11-2011, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/egypt-287527-america-egyptian.html

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2011

Sixty years ago, American politics was embittered by an accusation couched as a question: "Who lost China?" The implied indictment was that America had fumbled away a possession through incompetence or sinister conniving.

In 1949, when communists came to power there, America bestrode both hemispheres shattered from war. Americans thought their nation was at the wheel of the world and that whatever happened, wherever, happened at America's instigation, or at least its sufferance, or was evidence of American negligence.

It is a sign of national maturity – the product of hard learning, from Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan – that fewer American complainers are today faulting the Obama administration for not anticipating and shaping events in Egypt. Israel, which lives next door to Egypt and has an excellent intelligence service, did not see this coming.

The professional analysts have been predicting this for three years, based on economics, demographics etc. The only surprise was the guy who immolated himself in Tunisia and started it. Many thought probably the assassination of a rival party leader by the local gubmint or the banning of a popularist political party would start it. That's what started the problems in Algeria with the GSPC