Apparently the State Department, CIA nor The White House knows much more than we the people about what is happening in Egypt.
It appears that the White House was caught by surprise by the Revolution in Egypt when in the early days of the now 18 day upheaval the State Department said Egypt ‘was stable.’

They the administration, et.al., were behind the curve from the get go and it doesn’t seem to be catching up as a result of today’s events.

President Obama on a pre scheduled trip to Michigan was reportedly watching unfolding events in Egypt on TV while traveling on Air Force One, under the assumption that President Mubarak was going  to resign.

That’s what I was doing on Manasota Key.

It didn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling that my government was doing what I was doing; I always thought they knew more than I especially when it comes to intellegence.

Now we all know the price we have paid to be friends with Egypt . . .  or, was it the price we paid for peace in the Middle-East?

It is not an unknown fact that we have been pouring $1.3 billion a year of taxpayer money into Egypt for 30 years and another $28 billion for aid in the same period while dictator President Mubarak was accumulating enough wealth to make him a multi billionaire several times over with an estimated net worth of some $80 billion.

It is well known that we are cheek and jowl with the Egyptian Military, they are trained in the US, the officers at West Point, they are provided with our arms, tanks, planes, ships, parts and anything else you might imagine and perhaps they are an extension in this region of our CIA.

What are we to think when our government doesn’t know what to think, constantly seeking an ‘orderly transition’ of the Egyptian government?  While we have seen diplomacy and respect to Mubarak  by the Administration on the surface, with the expectation that the Obama administration was doing a lot of pushing for his resignation below the surface, we see that both surfaces appear to be the same, rather impotent.

Now the uprising in Egypt has come about by a disorganized youth movement that has gained momentum. Mubarak has no government other than a recently appointed Vice President.

The stage is set for an organization sitting in the wings that is organized: the Muslim Brotherhood.

To demonstrate the naivety within the Obama administration, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifying before a Congressional Committee, said today, “The Muslim Brotherhood makes efforts to work through a political system that has been, under Mubarak’s rule, one that is largely secular in its orientation”.

Since his statement, he has backed away from the comment, saying that he is well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secular organization,” said a spokesman for Clapper.

By all accounts from numerous sources the Muslim Brotherhood’s sole motivation has been to oust President Mubarak take over Egypt and create an anti-American state and further its goal of Islamic Jihad.

Ethan Bronner writing from Jerusalem for the New York Times says, the Israeli government fears that an Egypt run by the Muslim Brotherhood will mean “not only a stronger Islamist force in Gaza but also in the West Bank, currently run by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, as well as in Jordan, meaning Israeli would be surrounded in a way it has not in decades.”

And so today while all were waiting for Mubarak to resign, he gave the finger to the world.

In a rambling confusing speech Mubarak said he was transferring much of his powers to his Vice President, and to the US he basically said: Butt Out, I’m staying.

And so what was to be expected by all including our administration was not to be.

From what I can see there are two scenarios following what is expected to be an explosive reaction by the Egyptians:

• The Army supports Mubarak  fully and puts down the Revolution.
• The Army supports the people, controls the crowds without violence, a Military coup takes place and the government is turned over to a Military Tribunal until such time Democratic elements are put in place leading to an election that represents democracy.

It is my hope that the latter takes place, because it all depends upon what the Army does.

The second choice is the best for Egypt, the Middle East and America’s interest.

Meanwhile America’s persuasive comment from the White House this evening, “We will always be friends to Egypt.”