1 February 2011 Tehran – ran - ran - ran, Cairo - run - run

For Egypt's Mubarak, push has come to shove
By Eugene Robinson

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/31/AR2011013104490.html

…The Muslim Brotherhood is the best-organized opposition political force in the country, but it has been relegated to the margins of the popular uprising. So far, this is a secular revolution. A post-Mubarak Egypt whose foundation is laid now would include the Brotherhood but not in a central role. If Mubarak were to hang on until September - and the multitudes in the streets went glumly back to their everyday lives - the purposeful and tenacious Brotherhood would end up playing a much bigger role in charting the nation's future…

Already, demonstrators have noted that the rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters fired by Mubarak's hated police are stamped "Made in the USA." It is true that Mubarak has been a useful and fairly reliable ally for three decades. But it is also true that cold-eyed analysis would conclude that the 82-year-old Mubarak's day is done, that the clamor for democracy in Egypt has reached a point of no return and that it is better for U.S. interests to be on the right side of history.

The United States will in any case retain some influence in Egypt, if only because of the $1.5 billion in aid we give annually. It would be good if we retained some moral influence as well - but we won't if the administration is seen to back a corrupt dictator whose mandate is utterly expired.

There's another reason to give Mubarak a mighty shove: We believe in freedom and democracy. We really do.

It is thrilling to watch as Egyptians assert the rights that we hold to be inherent and universal - to assemble, associate and speak freely, to give their consent to be governed, to withdraw that consent when it is abused.

We can't take the position that democracy is good only when we approve of the leaders who are elected. We'd never convince the Egyptians that this was anything but rank hypocrisy. We'd never even convince ourselves.

Cassi Creek:

“ Shaking in the forest, what have you to fear?

Here there may be tigers, to punch you in the ear.

With gloves of stainless steel, bats carved out of bricks

Knock you down and beat you up and give your ass a kick.

When push comes to shove, you're afraid of ..”

Like any “ leader for life,” Hosni Mubarak is afraid of many things. He has to maintain continual guard against the chance of assassination by agents of one or more opposition party. He has to assume that his food may be poisoned, that his bodyguards may be plants, just waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger. He can’t trust his physician. His life is a continual waltz through the halls of paranoia.

“Shaking in the bedroom, covers on your head,

Are you still in fear of the hand beneath the bed?”

Now he has come to the apparent end of his “for life” job. If he is smart enough to look around him and agree that the time to leave is now, while he can still walk out, he may be able to find a safe, if extremely costly, place to live out his natural days. He needs a remote location with heavily controlled access where he and a retinue of family, retainers, and the necessary number of “still loyal” servants can live in royal style, on money somehow obtained from Egypt’s treasury, and pretend that the world has not shifted beneath his feet. Even if he finds such a place, most likely in a small but ever-practical European nation that will pretend he is not residing there as long as the “rent” is paid in full, on time, and in specie; he will never be secure from the threat of assassination. “Leaders for life” create many enemies during their period of leadership. There will be a long line of people who were interned and interrogated, a line who’s families were displaced or interrogated, and beggared. There will be religious assassins ready to kill him for this or that insult to the prophet or the prophet’s thoughts. He will have angered one facet of the faithful or another for many reasons.

It is time for the United States, which has supported Mubarak for decades, to invite him to vacate his job and palace. Our support of him along with our support of Israel, makes us unwelcome to much of the population of Egypt today.

While we need to encourage his departure, we cannot afford to harbor him in his retirement. We offered shelter to the Shah of Iran in 1979 when the Islamic revolution took place. While I don’t care how many Iranian mullahs we may insult, we do not need assassination teams bent on sending Mubarak to Paradise or perdition. We do not need religious fanatics of any breed thinking that they have license to hunt in our nation; or to hunt for our citizens in any nation.

While we supported Mubarak, we have no obligation to offer him shelter. We will only do further harm to our policies and positions in the Middle East. Nor do we wish to openly interfere in any ongoing regime changes in Arab nations that may decide that now is the time to become members of the emerging world rather than remain in the third world of tribalism, illiteracy, and religious fanaticism.

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