Kerry: US needs to ally itself with NEW Egypt...Mubarak must step aside gracefully.

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Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote an op-ed on the situation in Egypt that appears in The New York Times today.

The full text of the op-ed below:

Allying Ourselves With the Next Egypt
By John Kerry

EVEN if the protests shaking Egypt subside in the coming days, the chaos of the last week has forever changed the relationship between the Egyptian people and their government. The anger and aspirations propelling a diverse range of citizens into the streets will not disappear without sweeping changes in the social compact between the people and the government — and these events also call for changes in the relationship between the United States and a stalwart Arab ally.

President Hosni Mubarak must accept that the stability of his country hinges on his willingness to step aside gracefully to make way for a new political structure. One of the toughest jobs that a leader under siege can perform is to engineer a peaceful transition. But Egyptians have made clear they will settle for nothing less than greater democracy and more economic opportunities.

Ushering in such a transformation offers President Mubarak — a great nationalist ever since his generation of young officers helped their country escape the last vestiges of British colonialism — the chance to end the violence and lawlessness, to begin improving the dire economic and social conditions in his country and to change his place in history.

It is not enough for President Mubarak to pledge “fair” elections, as he did on Saturday. The most important step that he can take is to address his nation and declare that neither he nor the son he has been positioning as his successor will run in the presidential election this year. Egyptians have moved beyond his regime, and the best way to avoid unrest turning into upheaval is for President Mubarak to take himself and his family out of the equation.
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As if anyone with a brain would believe that empty suit has thought long and hard about ANYTHING this crucial.

as best as he could - on what the biggest threat facing America is in a Presidential debate.

What is interesting in Romney's comment is that it means that the brains behind him - which seems to be Heritage Foundation etc - must see that Mubarak is on the way out - and they want to give Romney the look of having been prescient. I doubt it is "copying Kerry", though they might have waited for a prominent Democrat to say it first - and see what the fall out was.

(Kerry killed him when he countered Kerry on New START. All I can say is that it was not a fair fight - Romney was a complete lightweight. It would have been better if it were a debate.)

He's just a face in a suit fronting for fascists.

We really have to call on Mubarak and all his cronies to step aside. The only thing that keeps him trying to hang on is the thought that he will be supported (in the name of "stability for the region" by nations like the U.S. and Israel).

and as clearly.

Just now on the live feed the reporter said that Kerry is saying what the administration probably would like to say and might even be telling Mubarak in private. They then gave Kerry gravitas by pointing out how he's a senior Senator having served in the Senate for a very long time.

in Obama's cabinet. Let's hope Kerry's position prevails this time.

I saw Kerry's CNN interview on Friday. It was also interesting, but this op-ed hits a perfect note.

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