One Step Done and Another Begun

For a moment yesterday in Cairo, Egypt, it looked like deja vu all over again. The old 'an enemy of my enemy is my friend' math that brought us Ferdinand Marcos and the Shah of Iran as allies until their own countrymen sent them packing looked like it was adding Hosni Mubarek to the list of the best buddies Yankee Dollars can buy, but President Mubarek then decided that hasty fade to black was not happening until after the summer (I couldn't resist). And then changed his mind (or had it changed for him) yet again earlier this afternoon.

I don't pretend to know enough about Egypt to conclude the current regime is part of the Legion of Hell or if the Nile will turn to chocolate milk if/when the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power. It's nice to read members of the US intelligence community could take a break from their efforts to disassemble Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction long enough to assure me these kids are kool in the kaftan. From Jim Clapper's lips to Allah's ear, as if. Forgive me for hoping Kamel Al-Hilbawi has a sore throat.

Sorry for sounding callous and uninformed. I don't know what the standard of living in Egypt is now, what it has been or what impact any of what is going on will have on the people who live there. I don't care or have any incentive to do so, residing, instead, in a city with palindromic zip code that rarely necessitates a meteorologist to assess the direction and velocity of air movements.

I'm a very simple ship or another and different consonant. I watch for the reaction by the only nation in the entire region associated with a form of democracy I can recognize at fifty meters, Israel. They're surrounded on three sides by hate-filled crazies and on the crazies-free side, by the Mediterranean Ocean. Quite frankly if they arch an eyebrow in concern for their citizens, feel free to release the safeties and then empty the magazines. Lather, rinse, repeat. Parlez Vous Never Again?

I'm keenly aware I'm NOT watching the last act in the passion play that was the end of the DDR. I know how the story comes out in Alexandria if Hollywood is writing the script but the happy ending crayon is in short supply right now, so it's very possible rationing in the short term to get everyone through the long haul may be used. If the horse don't pull, you got to carry the load. Or end up as one.

-bill kenny