Comment on the Belmont Club "The mystery of Yemen"

Langley has the answer IMHO, Egypt is like Wilmer the Gunsel, ready made to be the fall guy. The importance of Egypt in the Muslim mind can not be overestimated. Saudi Arabia, despite the importance of Mecca and Medina, has been a backwater since the death of Muhammad. Turkey is important as the seat of the old Caliphate and the old Roman Empire but is otherwise peripheral. Syria and Iraq are genuinely important. especially to Shia. Egypt however is more important for several reasons;
1. Cairo is the seat of the most important Sunni scholarship
2. Egypt is seen as the tool of the Americans
3. AQ would love to kill the Copts.

The Muslim Brotherhood is close to victory. Hamas is the Brotherhood in Gaza. al-Qeada, which also has strong links to Egypt, can not ignore the struggle to the North. From their perspective Egypt is the prize and Pakistan is a side show, with nukes.

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wws,
The Republicans should announce that when they take control they will pass a law that the US will only maintain full diplomatic relations with sovereign states and not with constituent components of a polyglot empire. That means we should tell the Brits, the French, the Germans et al that they have to make a choice. We did not open embassies during the Soviet era in Byelorussia or the Ukraine, despite Stalin's offer to open embassies in Texas and New York and admit them to the UN. Of course FDR declined that invitation by noting that he could not guarantee that Texas would vote the same way that he did.

The Republicans should be clear that they intend to repeal the entire Obama project as illegitimate and that in neither law nor jurisprudence should anyone expect any respect for precedence or stare decisis to protect any act, contract, or ruling of this administration.

Dec 21, 2009 - 9:41 am