The widespread use of the Internet by extremist Islamist organizations and their sympathizers is well-known. For example, the appearance on such websites of announcements and speeches by terrorist leaders and ideologues and the avid rapture with which individuals around the world are radicalized in their forums and chat rooms into becoming religious extremists and terrorists are widely reported.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's decision not to step down begs what comes next. The Egyptian Army, a professional pro-Western force, stepped in to "safeguard the interests" of the country, and new powers were delegated to Vice President Omar Suleiman, the intelligence chief. The wild card is the mob in the streets.
If there was ever an example of an organization whose right hand had no clue what its left was doing, the Obama administration is it. First, against all odds, the administration soon after taking office aggressively pushed new Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, hoping to once and for all settle the Arab-Israeli conflict and bring peace and stability to the Middle East.
President Obama called for an "orderly and genuine" transition to democracy in Egypt on Thursday, but Hosni Mubarak stopped short of meeting protesters' demands that he step down at once. He did say he was transferring some powers to his vice president.
Former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld raised fresh questions Wednesday about the Obama administration's handling of the crisis in Egypt, saying he hoped behind-the-scenes diplomacy was going more smoothly than it appears from the outside.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers criticized the Obama administration's response to the political crisis in Egypt during a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
Democracy is more than a word. The protesting Egyptians and the watching world are learning that between the Egyptian army and the Muslim Brotherhood there's a lot to overcome. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton got one thing right: "It needs to be an orderly, peaceful transition to real democracy, not faux democracy."
Many conservative organizations have chosen to boycott this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), but Veterans in Defense of Liberty will be there in force. Our group is going to CPAC to fulfill our sworn and solemn oath to "defend and protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic." Unfortunately, the nation's pre-eminent grass-roots conservative gathering has become a showcase for the enemies of the American tradition.
The protesters agree that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must go, but there does not seem to be a unifying vision of what should happen next.
