How's that 'smart diplomacy' working out for ya?

As opposed to that dumb bunny President Bush who never got anything right? Well, our brilliant striped pants crew at the State Department and the administration have managed to enrage both sides in the Egyptian political crisis.

Both sides:

Supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohammed Morsi are still on the streets of Cairo.

But their protest is being ignored by Egypt's new unelected government appointed by the military.

And many of them blame America for seeming to condone the army's actions.

"America now helps army, not [the] Egyptian people," said protester Alaa Reqaby.

Protesters like Alaa Reqaby told us the U.S. talks about safeguarding democracy, but did nothing to protect Egypt's democratically-elected president.

"Mr. Morsi will be back, he will be back. Yes, we can. I want to say to Obama; Yes, we can," said Alaa Reqaby.

You might think Egyptians who helped bring down Morsi by protesting in Tahrir Square would feel differently about America.

But they have their own complaints with the U.S.

As demonstrators' posters made clear, they believe America was too close to Morsi and his conservative Islamic party.

Ahmed Saeed is a liberal politician who told us America has let Egyptians down.

"After the U.S. witnessed the dictatorial system by which Morsi was ruling, they should have had a stronger impact on them," said Saeed.

"They [the U.S.] should have intervened more aggressively and firmly in order to make him feel that he's not going to get American support going out this way," added Saeed.

What these sentiments represent is a reflection on Obama's hesitation, indecision, weakness, and confusion about what to do in Egypt. I'm pretty sure his heart is with Morsi, who, after all, was democratically elected (after a fashion). But the realists recognize the military as a far better bulwark against Islamic extremism.

So Obama has tried to split the difference and has ended up getting everyone mad at him. You know when you've made a hash of a foreign policy situation when everyone thinks you're for the other guy.




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