No, I'm suggesting that it may have far reaching consequences that might destabilize the region even more that it already has. I'm not criticizing the earnesty of the movement, as they appeared to be legitimate populist movements, but I will criticize the interim governments for letting their citizens loot and burn a foreign embassy. Especially when it's the nation that is more than willing to level the entire region with nukes should they get invaded again.
Seriously... they didn't do anything to stop it except to make sure that only the embassy was affected. What does that tell you about the government's long term plans?
While naturally not permissible, I think things like this were only to expected, and might well get worse. Though the transitional government in Egypt has stated that they will continue to honor the terms of the peace agreement with Israel of 1979, the treaty seems to be very unpopular with large elements of egyptian society, and the current rulers do not have the luxury of ignoring the sentiment on the street like Mubarak did. The recent cross-border terrorist attack from Egypt into Israel (apparently with no links to the egyptian administration) and the aftermath, which left three egyptian security personnel dead by IDF fire in what seems to have been an accident, certainly did not help matters either; it left the egyptian military with a need to demonstrate to the people that they are not passive in front of Israeli aggression, as the Muslim Brotherhood claim they are.
That said, I'm not sure the looting of the embassy was necessarily a calculated move on Egypt's part. As the article stated, there have been many demonstrations in front of the embassy without serious incidents in the past months. This one may just have gotten out of hand. In any event, I'm personally not overly concerned that it would be in the interests of this government to
alter Egypt's long-standing foreign policy of peace with Israel too much, at least as things currently stand. Though if they follow through with their pledge to hold free and fair elections, it might well bring to power a new regime with markedly more hard-line views on Israel and the US, and a pro-Hamas stance.
Yep, I've been following this. Just because the outcome was not as expected, that does not make the movement a bad idea. As for what the interim's government policies are in relation to Israel... If they're still buddies with them you'll say it's business-as-usual, if they go against them you'll say it's populism. Can't win brah.
I could actually argue that the outcome in Egypt was pretty much as expected, though maybe not what was hoped. Still, though Obama has taken some flak for allowing Mubarak to fall (I seem to recall it being said that the egyptian military's decision to remain in barracks, dooming Mubarak's administration, was at least influenced by consultations with their US collegues - the two militaries have strong ties), it might not have been within US capabilities to alter the outcome of the revolution in Egypt, and attempts to try could have resulted in a bad situation becoming worse.