Progressive intellectuals snookered again

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/334560/morsi-s-maneuver-andrew-c-mccarthy?pg=3

It makes one wonder why we call the likes of Rick Stengel an intellectual, because not much thought goes into their refusal to condemn those who promote despotism.

The American Left and the Arab Spring

As the Left continues to berate Republicans for being so optimistic regarding Romney's election chances here at home, they forget how they passionately praised the Arab Spring uprising in Eqypt as cooler headed sceptics warned that the Muslim Brotherhood is more wintery than springish.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/egyptian-opposition-leader-pharaoh-morsi-must-rescind-recent-edicts-or-cycle-of-violence-likely-to-begin/

Morsi is a dictator, and the entire region is structurally and intellectually designed for tyranny. Until there is a grassroots movement to institute economic freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, property rights, etc, there will one dictator after another with civil wars in between.

Up with Chris Hayes 9/23/2012 -- Libya and Egypt ande the moderate uprising

On Up with Chris Hayes during the first part of the show a panel of mideast experts talked about how to understand the nuances of the mideast and how to appreciate the moderate backlash against radicals. Just as our government is too quick to spin a narrative of the mideast in spontaneous turmoil, so too is it premature for the wind-up pundits to spin a narrative about moderates. I suspect that leaders in Libya and Egypt realized that America is sick of sending money to an area which is, to a large part,, so irrational, violent, intolerant and unstable, so a few groups were assembled to enact a resistance to the radical groups.

Hayes and the guests were talking about the Muslim Brotherhood leadership as if they are becoming moderate now that they have a country to run. The Narrative being pushed on Hayes' show is no doubt intended to complement the administration's characterization of the Arab Spring as equivalent to the falling of the Berlin Wall. At least Obama and gang and MSNBC have comic value.

One guest was seriously explaining how moderates are now fighting against radicals, and how there is a significant split in the mideast between moderates who want to liberalize and radicals who want Sharia law. That's all fine, but it's there business. I wish them well, but America should not be involved at all -- not at all -- except as a cheerleader from afar chanting go freedom fighters, go. We should let them know that when the moderates win and a viable market is developed, we'll be glad to peacefully trade with them, goods, services, culture, knowledge, etc, like civilized people do in modernity.

Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood and Glenn Beck

I wonder when David Brooks, Bill Kristol and other Really Smart Republicans will apologize to Glenn Beck for calling his ideas wacky when Beck predicted the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Spring.

Syria, Assad and US interventions

How long has the US operated covertly in Syria, or against Assad in an attempt to create another Arab Spring uprising? US media gives us the sanitized version that Assad is evil and the peaceful protesters are now fighting for liberty against all odds. It's understood that Assad is no great, benevolent leader, but the Islamist groups attempting to gain control are no better, and where in the mideast are there any great, benevolent leaders? Several reports show that most Syrians prefer the Assad government, but you won't see that reported much in the US.

Turkey is now proposing a buffer zone for refugees, but this will require help from other countries to provide firepower. I wonder who can help? Can it be NATO who operates without US leadership?

Western media is not telling the whole story. Behind the scenes, US intervention in mideast affairs expands and expands. We are likely using Turkey as a way to affect regime change in Syria, so that we can move further toward regime change in Iran. The US is dealing with dangerous Islamist groups it won't be able to manage after they've gained power. These lovers of "democracy" will be biting us in the ass soon enough. Although our economy is an important topic in 2012, our interventions in mideast affairs are just as important. As Obama gets us more deeply involved in these no-win, mideast situations, Republicans are not opposing the involvement and manipulations --  the neo-con crowd is calling for more war, as usual. It's left up to the New Republicans led by Rand Paul to build an opposition and call for transparency -- Western media sources are practically useless, although some reports are better than others.