Obama disowns ally Egypt - slip or diplomacy?
President Obama said Egypt is not an ally, though it is. The government walked back the statement. Did he shoot first and aim later, to borrow a phrase, or was he sending a message?
Obama disowns ally Egypt - slip or diplomacy?
Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer
After Mitt Romney’s heavily criticized blast at the administration for mishandling this week’s attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo this week and “sympathizing” with the anti-American zealots who carried them out, President Obama had a sharp rejoinder.
“Gov. Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later,” Obama said in an interview with CBS News Wednesday. “And one of the things I’ve learned as president is you can’t do that, that it’s important for you to make sure the statements you make are backed up by the facts, and that you’ve thought through the ramifications before you make them.”
Later on, Obama was asked in a Telemundo interview whether Egypt is a U.S. ally, and he turned long-established foreign policy on its head. “I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” the president said.
Did he think through the ramifications of that statement?
Sure, it’s true the U.S. does not have a mutual-defense pact with Egypt, as it does with its NATO allies. But we have had relatively close relations with Egypt at least since President Richard M. Nixon’s diplomatic initiatives after the second Arab-Israeli war in 1973. And Cairo gets $1.5 billion in foreign aid from the U.S. annually – the second largest recipient, after Israel; Obama voted for that aid as a senator and has backed it as president, even arguing against some in Congress who want to cut it.
Further, Egypt was designated a U.S. ally by Congress in 1989, along with other important non-NATO countries like Israel, Japan and Australia. There had been no change in that status for Egypt, not even during the Arab Spring revolt that deposed long-time President Hosni Mubarak, credited with keeping a lid on the Islamist radicals in the country – until, it seemed, Obama seemed to disown the largest Arab nation in the middle of his interview with the Spanish-language Telemundo.
The State Department and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney later clarified Obama’s remark, making it clear that Egypt has been, and remains, a U.S. ally.
The episode was another twist in a week that has been dominated by foreign policy issues, an anomaly in this economy-obsessed presidential campaign.
To be fair, it should be noted here that some analysts have suggested a different interpretation: that Obama was, in fact, engaging in high-level diplomatic elbow-throwing. In that view, he was telling the post-Mubarak Egyptian government it had better get a handle on the violent anti-American protests sparked by a You Tube film perceived as highly insulting to Islam…or else.
It is Youtubes fault.— sillybilly- It was a slip of tongue or you can call it a diplomatic cable wikileak out of the President's mouth.
One has to be absolute moron to think that extremist muslim brotherwood can be an "ally". It can be a "partner of convenience". What was at presidents heart just slipped out through his mouth.
This should assure all Americans that he has his head in the right track. As far as extremists among us are involved who thinks Osama is in collaboration with Muslim Brotherhood as a "disguised muslim", egg on their face one more time :-)
— Seed - Clinton said, "Obama is a man cool on the outside. But he is burning hot inside to care for his people".
Those who killed Stevens need to say their last prayer.— Seed - I was wrong.
Based on Egypt's reaction it seems Obama's shot across the bow was intentional and it worked wonders.
Egypt's muslim brotherhood now knows how to behave.— Seed - What's it like to be wrong everyday,Seed? — bearsfriend
- If they aren't an "ally", then why are we sending them billions of dollars? — hey buddy
- It was a slip of tongue or you can call it a diplomatic cable wikileak out of the President's mouth.One has to be absolute moron to think that extremist muslim brotherwood can be an "ally". It can be a "partner of convenience". What was at presidents heart just slipped out through his mouth.This should assure all Americans that he has his head in the right track. As far as extremists among us are involved who thinks Osama is in collaboration with Muslim Brotherhood as a "disguised muslim", egg on their face one more time :-) (HTML deleted) — Seed
- This comment has been deleted. — hannibal barca
- Dear american taliban:
Please let me know if I missed the news of American soldiers landing in Egypt to put Muslim Brotherhood in power.
Or if I missed the news of President sending out Morons like you to Egypt to stuff the voting box.
We spent 3 trillion and killed 100,000 in Iraq and now Iraq is Iran's greatest alley. How long will it take The Taliban like's to understand you can't control a country with money or power anymore. Colonial days are gone!— Seed - It was Obama's American warplanes that bombed Egypt that put the Muslim Brotherhood in power. Obama owns this mess, no blaming Bush this time. Ah and yes love the slip of the tongue when your boy Barry shoots from the hip. Let face it... he is a failure.
- I feel numb responding to this post, but there are the facts:
We did not bomb in egypt. We bombed in Libya; only after british and french started the bombing as their oil come from Libya. They did not want it to take too long as would have impacted their oil supply.
Notice no one is stepping up in Syria. It does not have oil.— Seed - This comment has been deleted. — hannibal barca
- Mitt "George Bush" Romney is an ignorant dangerous fool, while Obama yet again showed what cool, reasoned ADULT leadership looks like.
- getitright. Now that moniker is a joke — ozone
- Guess you didn't get the invitation: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/07/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner-obama-invites-muslim-brotherhood-leader-to-white-house/
— dogman5
You can reach Tom Fitzgerald at 215-854-2718 or tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
Reach Thomas at tfitzgerald@phillynews.com.
