As the historical situation in Egypt continues to unfold before our very eyes, opinions on this issue in the United States continue to evolve. The latest announcement by President Mubarak that he will cede power to his hand-picked vice president has caused an uproar amongst some of the citizens of Egypt. What is your opinion on this? What role do you believe the United States should play in this international crisis? Should this be a cause for concern in future relations in the Middle East? Please read this article published in The Washington Post on Friday, February 11, 2011.
Demonstrations Across Egypt
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Question: President Mubarak that he will cede power to his hand-picked vice president has caused an uproar amongst some of the citizens of Egypt. What is your opinion on this? What role do you believe the United States should play in this international crisis? Should this be a cause for concern in future relations in the Middle East?
The crisis in Egypt is getting out of hand. It is so agitating to hear that President Mubarak is going to leave his position to his "hand-picked" vice president. Basically, there will not be any change for the country if this happens. The thing that I struggle with when thinking about this situation, it that it's just so corrupt, but the United States cannot go in there and cause more tension and fighting. This whole riot in Egypt is affecting the rest of the world in a negative way. They control access to a very important canal that has been shut down for the past week and a half due to the riots and protesting. This canal is responsible for shipping more than 50% of the oil from the Middle East to other countries like the United States. This is affecting us greatly because the price per barrel of oil is skyrocketing. It's honestly a tough decision on whether or not the United States should get involved. Part of me says that they need to because of how it's negatively affecting our country, but then another part is saying absolutely not because the United States simply cannot afford to create any more tension in the Middle East. The consequences, whether they be positive or negative, are unknown and will not be known until a decision is made. It's just hard and I hope that the current President there does not get away with electing his own "hand-picked" vice president. That's so shady. This is my opinion on the current situation in Egypt.
I agree with Grace in the fact that it is distrubing to hear that he has left his position to the person he himself picked as a vice president. If President Mubarak choose him and has worked closely with him over the past years, then the change will be very subtle if at all. However, his vice-president will only get the position if the people choose to cooperate and re-establish their government. I feel bad that almost half of the nation is out of work and they no longer techincally have a government, but I still feel that we should not get involved. The situation is too confusing and unpredictable for us to risk. For example, if we choose to go over and try to help establish a government, but the people resented us as well and rioted against our military, which we can not afford. However, as Grace said, the country is a major exporter of oil and this controversy will soon cause our oil prices to greatly increase. I still feel that we should remain uninvolved and try to find other ways and places to import from, or wait it out until different forms of power for transportation are created such as hydrogen. I understand that it will be a very long time before that happens, but I feel that we should avoid participating at all costs. Our country has tended to have a civil relationship with Egypt in the past and I hope we continue to do so.
This crisis in Egypt is obviously a huge problem that needs to be solved as soon as possible. In my opinion, once this many citizens revolt, common sense should tell the government that President Mubarak needs to be removed from power; however, considering the current officials in power lack common sense and are so concerned with their degrees of power, this situation cannot be approached logically. I honestly do not know how I would react to this situation if I were forced to deal directly with it. Yes, obviously the government needs to be reformed, but what is the easiest and smartest way to go about doing that? I don't think anyone knows yet, otherwise they would be doing it by now.
I think that the people of the world, not just the U.S., should be concerned about this issue; however, I don't think everyone should be involved in it. I think it is easy for us to say that we believe Presient Obama should encourage President Mubarak to resign. We can even say that President Obama could provide guidance to President Mubarak in dealing with this situation. But, think if the situation was reversed. If the American people were revolting against President Obama and President Mubarak called him to encourage him to resign, don't you think Obama would be pissed? Regardless of what position you're in, if anyone tells someone that they aren't doing their job right and should resign, I would think that that particular person would be pretty angry. Therefore, I do not think it is the smartest decision for President Obama to intercede in this crisis in Egypt yet. Yes, it is an issue we should definitely be aware of and monitor closely, but I think it is safer for us right now to focus on our own tasks (aka Afghanistan), before we go meddling into another country's problems.
I don't believe that switching power from Mubarak to his Vice President will see any change for the Egyptian citizans to be honest. As much as I hate getting involved, I do feel like America needs to step in because it is starting to have very ngative consequences on us. It would be hard for Obama to watch all this happen, see the affects it has on his country, and do nothing about them. And although we're not exactly stable right now, we are more stable the any of the Middle East and therefore we should aid them when they can't do it themselves, especially once it's started to effect us. I don't know what they could possibly do but we are much mroe grounded than Egypt right now so anything we can do would be better than anything they could do without us.
I agree with Morgan. I think Obama needs to primarily be concerned with our war in Afghanistan. Honestly, we do not have the manpower or financial stability to initiate more conflict overseas. Obama has the duty to intercede by continuing to monitor the political atmosphere in Egypt and verbally support its citizens, without actually providing any military interference.
I do not think it is America's job to interfere in the Middle East because I do not think it will help anything, only making the situation worse. By the same token, as Grace stated, a nationwide decision to remain a bystander could lead to some negative economic effects. However, I feel the ramifications of taking military action of any kind in Egypt far outweigh the benefits. Furthermore, chances are our military involvement would only cause more problems. Therefore, not only would we be stuck in another dead-end conflict, but the oil would STILL be unavailable. I feel that military action would, inevitably, create two problems instead of one.
Mubarak handing power to his Vice President will of course cause more problems in the Middle East, because it fails to correct the flawed governmental system. These riots should be cause for concern for future Middle Eastern relationships because Obama needs to be careful to befriend the citizens of Middle Eastern countries as well as the government. He cannot just appeal to dictators anymore because the tides could turn at any moment. This Egyptian uprising proves that if America does not consistently defend the electorate and democracy overseas, we will gain more enemies than friends as Middle Eastern power slowly begins to shift to citizens.
In my opinion, although it is very good that Mubarak has stepped down from power, it is not an excuse for the U.S. to “temporarily” become involved. Although now we may think that they need some short term help in getting their country running again, I personally do not agree. I believe that we have enough on our hands when dealing with all our soldiers in the Middle East that we can currently not afford to meddle in any other countries business. I'm sure they know who they will soon be putting into office and I know that now the people are so happy that they will most likely be willing to cooperate since they finally got their way. I realize that the rioting in Egypt is affecting the rest of the world in a harmful way since they control such a large portion of the canal which has been shut down due to the riots and protesting, but this still leaves me thinking that we need to remain uninvolved for the time being. I realize it is responsible for shipping more than 50% of the oil from the Middle East and that much of this goes to the United States, but I feel confident that this will soon begin to boil over and things there will begin to improve. Gas prices will hopefully begin to go down again soon, now that the rioting has turned to celebration. If the U.S. felt the need to “get involved” in this crisis, then I definitely feel we would need to find ways besides sending troops there. Egypt seems to be on good terms with us, and so I believe that Obama could have a lot of influence there if he were to address the issue with suggestions for them which they would have to enact themselves. Hopefully the new rule in Egypt will begin to return things back to normal, including the U.S. staying on good terms with Egypt. I have high hopes that a new rule for the Egyptians will have many positive outcomes for all of us.
My opinion on the crisis in Egypt is that the face that even after the President had stepped down, he had picked the Vice President who will be in control now. It can be concluded that Mubarak will still somehow find a way to take part in dictating Egypt. Because we have many of our own issues here in the United States, I don’t think we should take full action in this international crisis. I believe however America should use the power we have to try to threaten Mubarak, with the hopes that he will understand we would be willing to take action against him if this continues in order to protect the people of Egypt. At this point, I don’t view this as a concern in future relations in the Middle East because it is more related to just Egypt. It is a civil war inside of their own country. If this continues however, especially with other countries getting involved, that is when this becomes a concern. Egypt is one of the oldest, most historical places in the world, however. There is a high amount of importance to fix this crisis for the benefit of the people there, and to continue on its history.
Although Mubarak is leaving office, he is hand-picking a vice president to take his place, and I feel that this situation will not prove to be any more effective than when Mubarak was in office. Because he'll be able to hand-pick his successor, I think that it is safe to say that whoever he chooses might follow the same path as Mubarak, and that completely defeats the purpose of getting rid of Mubarak; the citizens on Egypt have the right to be upset over this decision. While I believe that the United States should be concerned about this situation, I personally do not believe that we should take military action. Becoming so involved during such an unstable time could lead to negative consequences for both the U.S. and Egypt. I agree with Abbey's comment about the U.S. not having enough manpower or financial aid to become involved in more conflicts overseas; the U.S. should be more concerned with the war in Afghanistan rather than another country's issues that do not particularly effect the U.S. directly. Being more involved with the military could potentially lead to more problems that the U.S. is not ready to handle at this time, but I think that keeping an eye on the issue at all times is important. I feel that as long as the U.S. tries to both stay away from using military force while helping in some ways possible that our future relations with Egypt should not be of great concern. Taking dramatic action could lead to negative relations with the Middle East. Staying on good terms and keeping a stable relationship with Egypt right now is key to having few concerns about future affiliations.
I am sort of torn on my opinion of the United State's role on this crisis. I think that we should not get involved because we have to deal with our own problems before we help other countries with theirs. But at the same time, I feel like we should intervene and suggest ways to peacefully end this while trying to stay neutral. I say neutral because taking a side would end up getting messy. Either way, we have to find a way to ensure our oil supply that we get from the Middle East.
I think Egypt needs to basically get their act together. I agree with Grace because it is stupid for Mubarak to hand pick a Vice President because he will obviously be just like Mubarak. I think the Egyptian government needs to start over with their political system. There should be a democracy which will let the people voice their opinions through votes which will decrease the amount of riots and protests by citizens.
I think the United States intervening could mess everything up in Egypt and could jeopardize us, too. Aside from the oil issue, I really do not think we beling in Egypt's business and should stick to trying to fix our problems.
I really don’t think that by giving power to his handpicked vice president will change anything so that was just a waste of time. I also think that we can’t go over and solve their issues; they need to do it themselves so they can get their government back on track. We have way to much going on here already and we don’t have the money to go over there, simple as that. They need to get it in gear and get with the program. For right now we just need to monitor the situation, and if it gets worse we can readdress it. I do know that we need to get some gas over here because people won’t be able to afford over four dollars a gallon this summer if they want to go anywhere this summer.
With Mubarak’s vice president comes to power, we will see no change in Egypt and the people there have a right to be mad about it. Obviously his vice president is a supporter of him and is just going to keep up with his tactics. Mubarak is going to most likely try to still control Egypt through his vice president. I also feel torn like Emily about whether the United States should intervene. We are not able to be concerned with any more ordeals going on overseas. We have our hands full enough with the Iraq and Afghanistan. United States is not equipped for ourselves to get too involved. However, I believe that if no one intervenes with Egypt the situation is not going to get better. I agree with what Erin says about the United State not taking action but threatening to action if this ordeal is not solved. This a touchy subject because Americans already have so much to worry about with our hundreds of other problems but if this Egypt situation is dealt with immediately, it could be blow out of proportion onto a global scale.
Every country goes through change and reform at some point. Just as we in the U.S. have the power to overthrow our government, so do the people of Egypt. They watched a corrupt leader rule their country for thirty years, and I give them a lot of credit for finally taking a stand. However, among all of their protests and cries for change, the president continues to stay in office, and now appoints one of his closest followers to lead. The people's demands are not being met, so I support their efforts and believe that they should not go home until something is achieved. Now even the military is starting to support the protesters. I do not think the United States should get involved. It is their problem and the Egyptian government needs to start really serving the people. I think the most we, as a nation, can do is advise the people of Egypt on how to find a peaceful solution. I do not think this is a concern for our relations with the Middle East, or at least not yet. Egypt needs to establish a new government authority, and even though we had close relations with the president, we must recognize their freedom and democracy and respect them in their attempts at change. Furthermore, once new leaders are elected, the U.S. can get involved and work to establish new relations with them. We cannot give the people any reason not to like us now though. We need to let them have their revolution and change.
What is your opinion on this? What role do you believe the United States should play in this international crisis?
I completely agree with Alannah's response. If the power was going to shift to someone chosen by the one ho everyone wanted out, nothing really was going to change. Obviously Mubarak chose his vice president based on his political views, which would be similar to his. Egypt would not be helping the situation by allowing the vice to take over. Although, the vice president would be a new face. He might not be able to handle the pressure of the protesters and riots. This could result in regaining some of the people's rights but still, not much will be accomplished by replacing an evil with a lesser evil.
Also, I believe that the United States should have no involvement in this crisis. Sure, we are allies, but the man who our President is allied with is the man they all hate. America needs to learn that they just can't help everyone. We are suffering ourselves. Why isn't Egypt helping us? Or all the other countries we have helped in the past. I just think that America tries too hard to be the mediator in every situation.
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