The streets of the Middle Eastern nation were full of protesters as its citizens took to the street, enraged over a corrupt leader and his government, whom they blamed for their horrible poverty and unemployment.  Meanwhile, Muslim agitators slinked through their midst, encouraging the overthrow of the government, proclaiming it “the will of Allah”. 

Meanwhile, an ineffectual and weak President of the United States watched the Middle Eastern nation explode in violence, making benign speeches full of empty threats, as he and his over-their-head State Department stood by, like witnesses to an unavoidable train wreck.

I have not been describing the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979.  I was simply relating what I observed on Fox News yesterday…and it continues today.

Per foxnews.com:

Hundreds of anti-government protesters returned Saturday to the battered streets of central Cairo, shouting for Hosni Mubarak to step down and attacking police even as the Cabinet resigned on the orders of the Egyptian president.

The sight of protesters pouring into Cairo’s downtown Tahrir Square and clashing with police for a fifth day indicated Mubarak’s pledges of reform and the dismissal of the government had done little to cool the anger over Egypt’s crushing poverty, unemployment and corruption. In a nationally televised speech after midnight, Mubarak refused to meet the protesters’ ultimate demand — for him to step down.

Over five days of protests — the largest Egypt has experienced in decades — crowds have overwhelmed police forces in Cairo and other cities around the nation with their numbers and in attacks with rocks and firebombs.

Overnight, the government called in military forces and by morning the army had replaced police in guarding government buildings and other key areas around the capital.

Americans who remember Iran and the Hostage Crisis, like me, are getting that ol’ queasy feeling again…and with good reason.

According to an article at nytimes.com:

Iranian “traditional conservatives” (i.e., devout Muslims) in Iran are very satisfied with what has been going on in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, where secular leaders have faced large-scale uprisings.

Mohammad-Javad Larijani, Secretary General of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights,and a very vocal leader among Iran’s “traditional conservatives”, said:

In my opinion, the Islamic Republic of Iran should see these events without exception in a positive light.

He and the rest of Iran’s Muslim hierarchy want the “anti-Islamic” government of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in Tunisia, to be replaced by a “people’s government”.

Sound familiar?

Additionally, he said that the United States and France are

doing everything they can to ride the wave and prevent the people from establishing the (Extreme Islamic) regime that they desire.

Who are the agitators that I refered to earlier?  They are The Muslim Brotherhood.

From discoverthenetworks.org:

Founded in 1928 by the Egyptian activist Hasan al-Banna, the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood is one of the oldest, largest and most influential Islamist organizations. Egypt has historically been the center of the Brotherhood’s operations, though the group maintains offshoots throughout the Arab-Muslim world — including in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian territories (Hamas), Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Sudan — and is also active in the United States and Europe. Islam expert Robert Spencer has called the Muslim Brotherhood “the parent organization of Hamas and al Qaeda.”

The Brotherhood was founded in accordance with al-Banna’s proclamation that Islam be “given hegemony over all matters of life.” Accordingly, the Brotherhood seeks to establish an Islamic Caliphate spanning the entire Muslim world. It also aspires to make Islamic (Shari’a) law the sole basis of jurisprudence and governance. Toward this purpose — encapsulated in the Brotherhood’s militant credo: “God is our objective, the Koran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations” — the Brotherhood since its founding has supported the use of armed struggle, or jihad. The Brotherhood supports the waging of jihad against non-Muslim “infidels,” and has expressed support for terrorism against Israel, whose legitimacy the Brotherhood does not recognize, and against the West, particularly the United States.

If you noticed, not a word was said yesterday by President Obama, nor his Administration about the involvement of this Islamic Terrorist Organization.  Instead, they referred to it as “the Egyptian people’s right to  protest their government peacefully”.

Yeah, right.  Thank the Lord there are no Tea Partiers over there (sarc).

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the US Administration is handling this situation very poorly:

Events in the Middle East are moving too fast for the Obama administration to think it can get away with Plan A and Plan B reaction strategies according to the regimes or leaders it wants to keep in and out of power.

…By current American thinking it would never do to have Islamists in power in the Palestinian Occupied Territories or in Lebanon and therefore they heed every despot’s warning that the Islamists are waiting in the wings across North Africa and the Middle East.

But lost in the lunge to protect US strategic and commercial interests by propping up the region’s dictator class is any realisation that support is what leaves the youth of the region under-educated and under-employed and, thereby, ripe for the picking by Islamist and other underground movements.

A lot of  us “older” Americans have referred to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., as Carter on steroids.

Unfortunately, we were right.  God help us.