As Cairo Turns Its Back on the Future, the Saudis and Israelis are there to Keep Mubarak & Co. in Charge

Cairo's mob scene isn't finding Mubarak's speeh what it wanted to hear. However, mobs don't fare very well in the long term as far as Middle East history shows, because invariably what follows is even worse, if possible, than what preceded the mobocracy.

Shortly after Mubarak spoke, the supreme commander of the army sent a text message that went to nearly every cell phone in Egypt saying the military would have an important statement later tonight. Suleiman, also speaking to the nation, told the country's youth to go home and to not listen to satellite television. But the mood among protesters was hardly that of retreat. Instead, angry crowds marched towards the Egyptian state TV building in downtown Cairo.

It's obvious now that Egypt's Army and its elite statists have turned their backs on Washington. If Obama had any cred before this sequence of missteps on foreign policy, that credibility has disappeared, at least in the Middle East. It now appears that Egypt is going to rely on Saudi money and Israeli political & military heft to keep itself in power. Meanwhile tiny Jordan hangs on to their triumvirate to keep the Bedouins from attacking the Palesinians.

King Abdullah had more than one Lebanese wife and sees that country being destroyed by Hezbollah. So he assured Mubarak that this wouldn't happen with the Ikhwan taking over in Egypt and that the Saudis would bankroll whatever the Americans rescinded as far as foreign aid. Israel doesn't want Hamas with a big brother in Egypt supplying it with munitions. So the Big Three of Saudi Arabia, Israel, & Egypt are now turning their backs on the US as an undependable partner. Better Saudi money with no strings than US money with ten thousand AID auditors peeking into every nook and cranny.

And I wouldn't want to be a reporter for the West on the streets of Cairo tomorrow because Mubarak warned about subversive western cable media & TV. Judging from Anderson Cooper's comments, the old president may have a point. If & when it hits the fan, a lot of newsies are gonna get splattered.

Too bad Anderson and Christiane got out of Cairo before some of the fecal material could be distributed widely.