I have the same question here that I had about Serbian nationalists speaking in English to Serbian rallies in Serbia.
Why are they speaking in English? Why did they just happen to be speaking English when an American camera showed up?
I smell a contrivance.
Yes, hopefully it is a minority opinion, because something is shaking loose, as it should. Hopefully we haven't blown the potential for it to be something better.
Nobody in Egypt is asking for MY opinion, or yours, or President Obama's, or Fox News's. We can go into gloom-and-doom-mode immediately, or we can graciously hope "The People of Egypt" have some good sense and virtue, and by virtue, I don't mean Kutbist ideology.
This reminds me of the bet between two soldiers in a tank as to whether the best way to avoid enemy artillery would be to pause before approaching a bridge, or to race quickly across it.
As the winner exulted over being proved right, the loser asked "Do you think I WANTED to win?" (He would have been up $5 and out two lives).
You're the first man I've seen in a while who puts his money on catastrophe. In any case, the President of the United States doesn't have that luxury. He has to TRY to get a better outcome -- and as you have observed, it is a very delicate path. He can't play to the sound byte hounds.
Born 1945 in Los Angeles. Worked from 1998-2016 as adjunct teacher at University of California at Irvine Ext. teaching English as a second language.
Served three years in US Army Military Police at Erlangen, Germany 1966-68.
1970-1973- Criminal Investigator with US Customs
1973-1995 Criminal investigator with Drug Enforcement Administration. Stationed in Los Angeles, Bangkok, Milan, Italy, Pittsburgh and Office of Training, FBI Academy, Quantico, Va. until retirement.
Author of Erlangen-An American's History of a German Town-University Press of America 2005,
The Story of Papiamentu- A Study in Slavery and Language, University Press of America, 2002, and
The Languages of the Former Soviet Republics-Their History and Development, University Press of America, 2000.
7 comments:
Let the cherry-picking of anecdotal "evidence" begin!
Hopefully, it's a minority opinion.
I have the same question here that I had about Serbian nationalists speaking in English to Serbian rallies in Serbia.
Why are they speaking in English? Why did they just happen to be speaking English when an American camera showed up?
I smell a contrivance.
Yes, hopefully it is a minority opinion, because something is shaking loose, as it should. Hopefully we haven't blown the potential for it to be something better.
Glad you are an optimist.
Optomist schmoptomist.
Nobody in Egypt is asking for MY opinion, or yours, or President Obama's, or Fox News's. We can go into gloom-and-doom-mode immediately, or we can graciously hope "The People of Egypt" have some good sense and virtue, and by virtue, I don't mean Kutbist ideology.
Siarlys,
Like everyone else, I will be thrilled if a genuine and lasting democracy takes over in Egypt. However, I live in the real world. My money is on Qutb.
This reminds me of the bet between two soldiers in a tank as to whether the best way to avoid enemy artillery would be to pause before approaching a bridge, or to race quickly across it.
As the winner exulted over being proved right, the loser asked "Do you think I WANTED to win?" (He would have been up $5 and out two lives).
You're the first man I've seen in a while who puts his money on catastrophe. In any case, the President of the United States doesn't have that luxury. He has to TRY to get a better outcome -- and as you have observed, it is a very delicate path. He can't play to the sound byte hounds.
Post a Comment