From: Adam 

Don Hills wrote:
> In article , Adam
 wrote:
>
>>Methinks the target is finally becoming Egypt. Egypt should have been
>>the target instead of iraq but......anyway........finally.......with
>>Baghdad "booming"......
>
>
> Condoleeza displayed interesting body language in the photo op meeting with
> the Egyptian head man...
>

I've said it before & I suppose I'll say it again &
again.......Egypt was where the push for democracy should have happened.

A) Close to & desirous of good relations with the EU which the EU has
said would require better levels of democracy etc. i.e. A Mediterranean
Arab country.

B) Dependant for much of it's income on it's image (i.e. tourism etc.)
Where frankly the oil pumpers don't need to give a damn.

C) Nearly there (i.e. the leader is not "for life" or a
hereditary position (yet...))

D) Kills 2 birds with 1 stone (biggest Arab muslim country & major
neighbor/threat to Israel)

E) Mil equipped by & has good relations with the US mil.

F) Better positioned wrt Africa & the lack of goood governance there
(e.g. it's southern neighbor Sudan) i.e. has a place at both the Arab &
the African tables.

G) No major US dependancy (i.e. no oil). Thus if things go a bit dodgy then
you might lose useage of the canal for a while & Israel might get
somewhat worried but in terms of US consumers (who really must be protected
for domestic US reasons) then no biggie.

The list goes on.

There was muttering post 9-11 that the Yanks were looking at promoting
democracy etc so as to give the angry young men an outlet. Most assumed
that meant Egypt & were somewhat non-plussed with the decision to go
with Iraq instead.

>
>>However wrt Saudi.....don't believe it. The democratic victor might well
>>be a islamist anti-us grouping. As such till the US has a hydrogen
>>economy or at least a non-oil economy then......better the devil you know.
>
>
> Yeah, that point was made.
>

Also it's pointless. Saudi is different for one other major reason which is
the 2 holy cities (esp Mecca).

Why anyone wants to d*ck around with saudi at this stage is beyond me. Get
Egypt "in the bag" & that's worth vastly more anyway. Let
Saudi see the wonders of a democratic etc Egypt & that will do the job
better than any American could.

  Adam

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