Rice Speaks Softly in Egypt, Avoiding Democracy Push

[spindrifter]

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: January 16, 2007

CAIRO, Jan. 15 — In the days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with officials in Egypt, the news media here were filled with stories detailing charges of corruption, cronyism, torture and political repression.

<snip>

Ms. Rice, who once lectured Egyptians on the need to respect the rule of law, did not address those domestic concerns. Instead, with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit by her side, she talked about her appreciation for Egypt’s support in the region.

It was clear that the United States — facing chaos in Iraq, rising Iranian influence and the destabilizing Israeli-Palestinian conflict — had decided that stability, not democracy, was its priority, Egyptian political commentators, political aides and human rights advocates said.

But the calculus of stabilization is so complicated and fraught in a region as fragile as the Middle East, where interests are defined by religion, geography, geopolitics and political opportunism, it is not at all clear that the new (old) approach will work. The United States is so unpopular in the region now, many here say, that its support is enough to undermine a government’s legitimacy with its public.

<more>

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/middleeast/16egypt.html?hp&ex=1168923600&en=79145df8728cd4f7&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[sweetheart]

1. They'll be flooded out

http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=30.1831,30.3662&z=9&m=10
She's gotta be calculating that the american-induced warming will flood out
all the egyptian aerable lands leaving them as 'irrelevant' to be kissed and
appeased at will until they become so.

With ongoing efforts, 10 meter sea level changes can be achieved within living time,
she's gotta be totally excited with the possibilities of drowning them out... neocons
are just so compassionate, it really defies the unknown unknown.