John Kerry: It's time for Mubarak to "step aside gracefully"

JacobPark Jacob Park
John Kerry: It's time for Mubarak to "step aside gracefully" http://nyti.ms/em8aw2 #Egypt #Jan25

http://twitter.com/#!/JacobPark/status/32341791873179649

it's actually the Obama admin asking him to gracefully step aside, using Kerry to say it. Any and all messages about Egypt are being tightly controlled by the White House, you betcha! ;)

Well, finally, huh? :headbang:

Definitely means his "opinion" piece was well vetted.

I think we can now say that this administration has declared it's side and asked Mubarak to go.

The SFRC is part of a co-equal part of government. You would be on more solid ground arguing that Kerry has been a strong Obama ally. However, Kerry also wrote an oped on Honduras that blasted the coup, which the administration soon tacitly accepted. Kerry is a statesman in his own right and not part of the administration. Not being part of the administration had its pluses as well as minuses - and the most important is that he is free to say what he thinks - even if it disagrees with the President.

I think that the administration is walking a very fine fine line - not wanting to side. They may feel that siding with the protesters would send a signal to all the leaders who we are allied with that we will ask them to do things we want done, but will not stand by them in times of trouble. However, siding against the protesters is siding against both the future and our own values.

I suspect that - as in the past with Eqypt - the administration's public words are more ambiguous than the private ones.

consider the greater good of the country. At that point, he qualified his comments saying specifically that he was speaking for himself - John Kerry - not the administration or the Senate in his CNN interview with John King. http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/28/john-king-usa-sen-kerry-on-egypt-and-the-mubarak-dynasty/

His first statement that was out earlier on Friday morning was already very supportive of the protesters - holding them to the tradition of Ghandi and King. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/140929-kerry-to-egyptians-protest-like-gandhi

By coincidence, Kerry was in Davos on Friday and Saturday and was part of a Middle East panel. He spoke to Randi Zuckerman who was doing a facebook interview there. Amidst many other things, Kerry spoke of how being there let him speak with many many Middleeastern leaders. (Fun interview - http://www.livestream.com/facebookguests/video?clipId=pla_2ae6bf82-1e01-4ac9-9d69-b9c00ed9bd20&utm_source=lslibrary&utm_medium=ui-thumb )

(All the links copied from DU JK where others posted them)

I think that JK is speaking for himself - as he has in the past. (Remember the administration did not follow the path he suggested (or the one Biden suggested) on Afghanistan.) He has in some countries, acted as Obama's emissary, but those were the exceptions and not the rule. He has an important role as a leader in a co-equal branch of government. Here, his value could be if he - and more importantly the facts on the ground, persuade Mubarak to leave. In that sense, the most important things that he does in this oped are to give Mubarak a face saving frame for leaving and to hold out the carrot of a plan like the Pakistan plan that provides civilian aid rather than military. It gives Mubarak a noble out and a promise for better life in Eqypt.

The Pakistan bill, Kerry/Lugar/Berman had its roots in the ideas that Kerry, Biden and Hagel turned on the trip where they landed in the snow. They were impressed at the effect of distributing earthquake aid in Pakistan had on anti-American sentiment. Kerry had for years spoken of the need to be seen as helping the people (as contrasted to say Hamas being the one providing services). This is of course that same motivation as the Peace Corps.

agreed, but he is not part of the administration and, as chair of the SFRC, could send his own message (as long as he does not negotiate anything).

I am confused by the discussion here. My guess is that he wrote that in agreement with the WH, but I am not sure why it matters?

BTW, whether it was vetted by the WH or not, the situation on the ground is way beyond what is offered here.

I think there are reasons Obama/Clinton can't say publicly, at this point, that Mubarak needs to go. Maybe it's for diplomacy, maybe it's for the safety of Americans still in Egypt, but I think with Kerry's statement, they've made their position known. That's why it matters.

of Middle Eastern leaders as he was, by coincidence, on a panel for the Future of the Middle East. Kerry is NOT part of the administration and he has the right and I would say the responsibility to give his opinion. I assume that Obama (or Hillary) has asked Kerry about his conversations in Davos - because, given the timing, they would be very interesting.

Obama can not "control" a co-equal part of government and I would doubt he would try. From his earliest statement, Kerry was more supportive of the protesters than Biden, Clinton and even Obama. Maybe because Kerry has seen the rise of a moderate, secular protest as what you want - rather than either the autocrats or the extremists. A concern he often expressed was that autocrats often completely suppressed the moderate opposition meaning that all opposition left is the extremists. This may not lead to a government as willing to do what the US (or Israel) wants, but it could lead to a more inherently stable government that is responsive to its people.

This is significant.

Bye Bye Mubarak

It is either "get the hell out" or get beaten out, at this point.

Kerry has since Friday suggested that Mubarak should leave. He is doing so in a diplomatic way - which I would think is far more persuasive when added to the BIG reason for leaving - the fact that the country has made it unambiguous that he does not have the support of the governed.

"get the hell out", but in a significantly more diplomatic way.

need to be unequivocal on this as well. Drop the reform, transition talk. State, without qualification, that it it time for Mubarak to step down.

Mubarak won't go as long as he has even a thread of support from the US.