Sending the Wrong Message on Egypt

After initially remaining silent with regard to the Egyptian situation, the Obama administration decided to send exactly the wrong message. According to MSNBC, the administration will "review its $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt." In addition, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton directly criticized the Mubarak regime.

"We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against protesters, and we call on the Egyptian government to do everything in its power to restrain the security forces," ... "We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests and to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communication," Clinton said. "These protests underscore that there are deep grievances within Egyptian society, and the Egyptian government needs to understand that violence will not make these grievances go away."

She called for the government to,

"engage immediately" with opposition groups and others to make broad economic, political and social changes.

Unfortunately it doesn't surprise me to see this level of Carteresque stupidity and diplomatic incompetence from the Obama administration. The last thing we should be doing is trying to undermine an allied regime. We should be reassuring Mubarak of our support, and making nothing more than bland statements of regret for the violence and unrest. Telling Mubarak that he should "engage" with those who want to overthrow his regime is complete idiocy, as is dropping hints that we are going to cut-off support. We are pushing him to do the things that will loosen his grip and cause his government to collapse. It's almost as if the administration wants to see another hostile Islamic republic in the Middle East. They obviously don't, but their foolish statements and attempts to triangulate make the downfall of Mubarak more likely.