Arab Autumn and Black Cat Chases

Missed Opportunities Evidenced

I’ve been watching the unfolding events in the Middle East to gauge how Obama and his foreign policy team handle the situation.  I wrote in this blog earlier this year that the State department should be reaching out to the Muslim Brotherhood, the new power in Egypt, to establish a relationship.  Apparently that never happened as the situation unfolding now is eerily reminiscent of what we saw with Carter and Iran following the Shah.  Obama, to his credit, fostered and supported the rise of democracy in Arabian North Africa but unfortunately failed in the follow through.  The US couldn’t afford to relax, pat ourselves on the back, and let events take whatever course they would without our involvement but apparently we now have evidence of that happening. The American embassy in Cairo was repeatedly attacked while security forces stood by and an emboldened terrorist cell killed the American ambassador to Libya.  These types of things do not happen without some very real failures in leadership on both sides of the equation.  The Egyptian president only reacted a full twenty-four hours after the attack, not the reaction of a friend or ally.  Its obvious Obama has not established any kind of relationship with the new Egyptian leadership – a stark failure.  Egypt is the key to the Middle East and more importantly to the “Arab Street”, which can determine how public policy is formed.  Egypt is the most populous, by far, of all Arab countries and holds the critical, strategic, geographic position in the Middle East.  The Libyans have been much more responsive and have already rounded up some of the hooligans responsible for the attack in their country.   While this is commendable the real key to the Middle East will always be Egypt.  Obama has missed an opportunity there which is shameful.  American Middle East foreign policy at best has been inept and at worst criminally negligent.  In this situation Obama has been positively “Carter-esque” – definitely not a compliment.  How he handles the next few weeks will go a long way in whether I can vote for him again.

Buddy Trying to Coax His Newest Friend Back

Getting away from my polemic side, Buddy had a very funny moment last night.  I was emplacing the latest flower purchase under close supervision of my wife on the front porch.  Whenever I open the front door Buddy always charges out to vanquish squirrels that live in the trees in front of our house, barreling down the hill at full speed.  He had barely cleared the front stairs at his usual breakneck speed when a black cat unexpectedly broke from cover right next to the stairs (spooked by Buddy’s tumultuous arrival on the scene) and was running right next to Buddy.  It surprised the hell out of my wife and I and it seemed to surprise Buddy even more.  He saw the cat out of the corner of his eye and then seemed confused, squirrels or cat.  He eventually chose cat but by this time the cat had forged a lead.  They were both headed pell-mell for the street with my wife and I yelling for Buddy to stop, envisioning a car putting an abrupt stop to the pursuit. Buddy reluctantly abandoned the chase and watched the cat successfully escape into the neighbor’s yard across the street.  The funniest thing was Buddy returned to the top of the yard and sat down expecting the cat to give him another chance.  You could almost see the wheels turning in his head “Boy I blew that – just give me one more chance – I know I can do better”.  It was hilarious as he telepathically tried to summon his quarry back for another go around.