When it comes your time to go, ain’t no good way to go about it
Ain’t no use in thinking bout it
You’ll just drive yourself insane
There comes a time for everything
And the time has come for you to shut your mouth and get your ass on the plane
By Mike Farrell STAFF WRITER
What should I say? Well, I got nothing. Maureen “Dulcinea” Dowd says Cleopatra would be rooting for the people in the streets, which shows that hot flashes make one silly since Cleopatra would have had a lot more in common with Moubarak than the people in the streets, and she was a goddamn autocrat plopped on the throne by a Superpower. Paralells, anyone?
The American Press is unhappy that Anderson Cooper has been beaten up — well, OK, about that? Although he seems to have it in perspective, we should reflect. Journalists take risks, unfortunately, and the thugs supporting the current regime are out to spread fear and terror. Tossing Molotov cocktails into the Museum of Antiquities is pretty goddamn serious; beating up journalists, even from CNN, is actually pretty much par for the course. Cooper says he’s staying away from Tahrir Square because it’s not safe. More interestingly to me, he says the Army stood there and watched the thugs whale on him and his crew. Oh, and he says he’s never been punched in the head before…really?
Well, from this point of view, we’ve been down this road before. Hasn’t ever really worked out all that well for US Realpolitik. Or, US ethical approaches to state craft. It’s really pretty simple — if you hang around long enough for a popular revolution against you, expect bad things to happen to you. And, of course, to your allies. Since we’re his most important ally, we can expect bad things, unless we get out in front on this. Which will probably require a pole vaulting metaphor at this point, since we’re behind the power curve.
Now, if I were President, I’d probably just tell the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to send Air Force 2 to Eygpt and then have this number by the Drive By Truckers translated into Arabic as important American poetry about the inevitable…but, that’s just me. And, having secured landing rights for him in advance in Riyadh or Rio or Finland or someplace, resolve the whole thing by a coup de main. I’d then get as much food into the country as is reasonable in the next 72 hours. Of course, I’m not president, and I guess this probably explains why I never could be. However, any opportunity to tie the Drive By Truckers to political upheaval is ok with me. In the immortal words of Mike Cooley, shut your mouth Hosni, and get your ass on the plane…
