Two of the most interesting things going on these days around the crisis in Egypt are happening outside Egypt. In the Middle East, leaders are anticipating demands for changes in their countries and are responding with pre-emptive measures that they expect will gain them enough time to remain in power and make sufficient adjustments to deflect popular discontent.
Further afield, the United States and the European Union are responding with half-hearted statements and initiatives that reveal their shallow commitment to true democratic transitions in the Arab world. Instead, they are frantically groping for ways to transfer power from one old military officer to a group of equally old colleagues. No wonder the Arab people are angry and risking their lives to achieve their rights: In their historic moment of self-determination and self-assertion in two countries at least – Tunisia and Egypt – ordinary Arabs hear a cacophony of Western calls for the military to assume power in some sort of undefined and non-guaranteed peaceful transition.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=124570#ixzz1DD6VIxCJ
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