Mubarak Holds On

I was excited today. There I was plugged into three live blogs and a Twitter feed, watching every single move that was being made in Egypt. For one, brief glorious moment it appeared that we were going to bear witness to an incredible moment in world history and one with titanic implications for the Middle East. Then, President Mubarak showed himself, spoke and then made it clear that he wasn't going anywhere.

People. Were. Pissed.

The scale of our response, however has been deeply disappointing thus far. It's not hard to understand why: Mubarak has been an island of stability in a sea of well, it's the Middle East, so a lot of instability for 30 years now. There's a Peace Treaty with Israel to worry about, the Muslim Brotherhood lurking in the wings, so it's understandable that our initial instincts are to be cautious. We don't want to, nor can we afford to screw this up. But that said, it's time- past time for the President to actually stand up and do something. Indicate our displeasure in mass produced, hen-pecked statements isn't enough, we need action. We need to make a choice and actually take some real action for once.

All the usual fault lines are visible: there's the desire not to be associated with any of the 'Freedom Agenda' or other neo-con tendencies leftover from the Bush Administration. There's old school realists who think we make like Tammy Wynette and 'stand by our man' and new school hipsters pushing to stand with the people demanding their basic rights. But there's a simple, simple action we can and should take and then step back- cut all foreign aid to Egypt. $1.3 billion will hit Mubarak where it'll hurt the most- namely his pocketbook. Just tell them, 'No more foreign aid until there's a freely elected civilian government in place' and then step back from the situation.

There are strategic considerations: our tight relationship between our military and the Egyptian military and the close alliance between our intelligence services that has become especially close after September the 11th. Friendship has to take a back seat to political reality and the political reality is that Mubarak pretty much pissed all over our faces tonight. It's time to throw an elbow- not just to prod events into a direction we live with- an end to chaos and the transition to an elected government- as well as making it perfectly clear to President Mubarak that if you piss all over our face, we take away your toys.