Do you believe Obama and the US will back the Egyptian people or their Government?

I’d put my money on the U.S. government backing the Egyptian government, considering the ties. If they do back the people, they’ll certainly try to funnel the revolution towards another pro-U.S. regime.

They are in the uncomfortable position of trying to back both at the moment. They have been backing the Egyptian Government to the tune of $1.5 Billion a year for a long time and those planes that have been flying over Cairo were probably paid for by the United States. America says it wants the Middle East to be more democratic and so it would follow that they should back the Egyptian people but what America really wants is stability and compliance.

I think that they are uncomfortable with the participation of Islamic extremist groups in the uprising.

the last thing they want is for those groups to claim power in a vacuum.

I think they will walk a fine line while this whole thing plays out.

I expect that the US government will stay awkwardly silent throughout the turmoil and hopefully regime change, as will the major European governments and the Chinese. The powers that be have way too much invested in the current governments of the Middle East and North Africa to let them go away. Just watch the support for Mubarak rolling in from Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iran. These despots are not our friends, we just like to pretend they are.

I agree with @marinelife…I think the US wants to get Mubarak to somehow implement more democratic priniciples. They fear what would happen if Mubarak were to just be ousted completely. Egypt has been one of the more stable supporters of the US for a long time. The US is having to tread very carefully, they want the Egyptian people to have democracy and a more representative government….but they fear the incursion of Islamic extremists who are (at the moment) infiltrating the demonstrations with rhetoric. In 1980, the Ayatollah seized the opportunity when the Shah was toppled to implement their agenda. It is a similar situation now. An imam (cannot remember which one) gave a resounding speech that the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia was because the Middle East was ripe for Islamic governance. It’s extremely tricky at the moment and if the United States gives aid to the Egyptian people, it is, no doubt, making sure that it has all its “ducks in a row”. The radical factions are extremely organized and ready to seize upon the chaos. It’s a very precarious time. Obama’s relative silence against a dictator that the US had no ties to (in the Iran crisis) was palpable. He did come out and say something about the situation in Tunisia and Egypt…I know he supports more democracy…but to what extent and in what way this support will manifest is yet to unfold.

@DarlingRhadamanthus Imam Qazwini of the Islamic Edcuational Center of Orange County said the Middle East is ready for Islamic governance on January 28. Let’s hope that Biden didn’t pull a Jimmy Carter with his remarks about Mubarak and the US doesn’t pull the rug out from under Mubarak and set the stage for another Islamic extremist country to take hold like they did with Shay Pahlavi in Iran.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSMNei7m-is

They will most likely try to straddle the difference, with the unltimate result that both sides will end up hating them.

@bkcunningham….....Absolutely. That’s the big question, isn’t it? The next few weeks will be crucial.

As much as I feel that the internet has made too many incursions into our privacy…one benefit is that it has given those under extreme/dictatorial rule an insight as to how the “outside world” has more freedom.

@DarlingRhadamanthus

The Internet? It’s more like Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA, and the other alphabet agencies USING the Internet, among other things.

@CaptainHarley….You are preaching to the choir here. I know that the alphabet agencies use the internet…sheesh. It was developed by DARFA for goodness sakes.

All I am saying is that a lot of the social media networks are helping to fuel the current movements for freedom in a lot of the world. That’s all. That would not have been even thought of when the internet was first conceptualized.

The “baddies” use it…..but so do the “goodies”....like Fluther. You can’t knock the internet for every malady in the world. It has its benefits both locally and globally.

This is true. : ))

Yes. Because it has become clear that the Egyptian Islamists are a minority.