Latest [main article of the NYT](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/world/middleeast/06policy.html?_r=1&hp) makes obvious what one can read in [Esam Al-Amin’s Counterpunch posting](http://www.counterpunch.org/amin02042011.html) sent along by Ronnie, or even, gulp, in [Noam Chomsky’s opinion](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/04/radical-islam-united-states-independence) published in the *Guardian*. Reading the NYT is believing. I quote: “…the Obama administration is struggling to determine if a democratic revolution can succeed while President Hosni Mubarak remains in office…” Strange turn of phrase. The revolution is succeeding no matter what. The calculation or fear is about how far it might go in establishing a new constituting assembly, propose a real democratic constitution and proper political institutions, and move towards elections. All of this is very good for everyone, especially the US, in the long term, but doesn’t look good in the short term, especially not for the way our energetic and military interests are structured in the Near East. And you can see that in the next paragraph of the NYT, which reports what Wisner, Obama’s special envoy to Mubarak and co, “told a group of diplomats and security experts” Saturday afternoon: “President Mubarak’s continued leadership is critical—it’s his opportunity to write his own legacy.” What legacy is he talking about? Serving US interests. Continued leadership of what? Helping in keeping some form of military dictatorship in place because the “democratic revolution” we want (i.e. with our military/energetic agenda) may not succeed? A word from Obama and colleagues and Mubarak was gone this time, after Friday’s recent demonstrations. But no, the US under Obama is going the other way now. Come on Mr. President, changes must begin now, and Yes, you can.