credit where due

From yesterday's White House briefing:

In addition, regarding Egypt, we are concerned by a continuing campaign of arrests in Egypt of individuals who are opponents of the current governing party and are involved in the upcoming local elections. The people of Egypt should be permitted to choose freely among competing candidates. We call on the government of Egypt to cease any actions that would compromise the ability of the Egyptian people to fully exercise their internationally recognized human rights and to participate in a free and fair election.

That's a good start.   
I'm on the road today and tomorrow, will try to follow up when I can.

Comments

[Mo]

credit where due? the people of Egypt should be permitted to choose freely among competing candidate? Surely the White House forgot to add the line "we reserve the right to punish the people of Egypt for choosing the wrong competing candidate".

[Solomon2]

Is there any way Egyptians can hold their own elections without involving the government at all? Remember, the U.S. Constitution was established not through the amendment procedures of the Articles of Confederation, but through its own process, which was endorsed by the population and accepted by the Continental Congress as a kind of fait accompli.

In a sense, this was the TRUE "American Revolution". A fair convention followed by good elections carried their own credibility, and the loyalties of government institutions followed.

[Non-Arab Arab]

The framers of the US Constitution didn't have an all-pervasive secret police, massive heavy-handed bureaucracy developed over 5000 years, or a vast majority of the population so poor they need the existing central government to provide them with income and subsidies just to survive. The US was and is a very different beast from most countries in the world, especially the developing world.

[Nur al-Cubicle]

The Administration would crap its pants if the MB came to power in Egypt democratically, which they certainly would if the elections were free and fair. That's why they are being arrested. The local equivalent of the MB took power in Somalia, and look what happened: the US hired Ethiopia to take them out. Nice words but not a grain of sincerity in them.