Thursday August 18, 2011

I've Been Thinking:

Yesterday's Egyptian daily al Gomhuriya quoted former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak as saying that Syria strongman Bashar Assad should step down because of the "crimes he committed against his countrymen."

Mubarak said that Assad should honor the Syria people's request and he should resign.

This entire episode is probably fiction.

There is no free press in Egypt and Mubarak has not and will not make public statements - about anything. He is being held in an Egyptian hospital under guard as a defendant in the case that could cost him his life. The last thing on his mind is what is happening in Syria and whether Bashar Assad should resign.

However, the current dictators of Egypt most certainly have an interest in Bashar Assad.

Their first interest in weighing in on Syria is to try to position themselves, once again as they were under Mubarak, as leaders in the Arab world. It may, however, be a miscalculation to invoke the old guard and the prowess of a fallen leader to achieve this status.

The image of Mubarak might backfire and Egypt will gain nothing more than a reputation as pathetic interventionists.

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