Barack Obama’s failure in Egypt has nothing to do with Egypt itself descending to chaos. No American administration has been willing to call Hosni Mubarak a dictator, which he is. And no administration has sought to strong arm Mubarak into a succession plan devoid of kleptocratic relatives.We cannot blame Barack Obama for Egypt collapsing in on itself.We can however blame Barack Obama for failing to mitigate and control the impact of the collapse.Like when a demolition team sets about bringing down a crumbling building — and we now know Obama collaborated to help bring down Egypt — the demolition team must make sure the building, as it implodes, does not throw debris and carnage all over the place. If that happens, the demolition team is liable.Barack Obama is liable, given this:

The Obama administration said for the first time that it supports a role for groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned Islamist organization, in a reformed Egyptian government.The organization must reject violence and recognize democratic goals if the U.S. is to be comfortable with it taking part in the government, the White House said.

Note that by saying the Muslim Brotherhood “must reject violence and recognize democratic goals”, the White House is presupposing that the Muslim Brotherhood accepts violence and does not recognize democratic goals.Notwithstanding that, the White House is perfectly happy to give them a seat at the table.It’s 1979 all over again. I hope the Embassy has been fully evacuated.