America now has no role in Middle East

Former Foreign Service Officer and Arabist Dave in Boca sums up one result of Hosni Mubarak's clampdown on his office today.

It's obvious now that Egypt's Army and its elite statists have turned their backs on Washington. If Obama had any cred before this sequence of missteps on foreign policy, that credibility has disappeared, at least in the Middle East. It now appears that Egypt is going to rely on Saudi money and Israeli political & military heft to keep itself in power. Meanwhile tiny Jordan hangs on to their triumvirate to keep the Bedouins from attacking the Palesinians.

King Abdullah had more than one Lebanese wife and sees that country being destroyed by Hezbollah. So he assured Mubarak that this wouldn't happen with the Ikhwan taking over in Egypt and that the Saudis would bankroll whatever the Americans rescinded as far as foreign aid. Israel doesn't want Hamas with a big brother in Egypt supplying it with munitions. So the Big Three of Saudi Arabia, Israel, & Egypt are now turning their backs on the US as an undependable partner. Better Saudi money with no strings than US money with ten thousand AID auditors peeking into every nook and cranny.

America as viewed from the Middle East
- and pretty much everywhere else, too.

My colleague Daniel Jackson asked nine days ago, "US Credibility Is Exactly Where?" Now we know. With Mubarak's almost-casual dismissal of Obama's demands, America now has exactly no influence with the powers of the Middle East. We are a toothless tiger and the whole world knows it.

Especially (and incredibly), according to Joe Biden, because we do not have high speed rail.

Update: President Obama's response to Mubarak is here.