[In response to the Feb. 2 article “Unrest in Egypt could lead to Israel’s worst nightmare”] Many Americans (I am a political independent), regard President Barack Obama similar to Jimmy Carter -namely, that he’s a rather weak person. However, the criticism in the article was unfair to Obama because he and his foreign policy team did not “so quickly turn his back on Mubarak.”

He, as the great majority of others have said, walked a fine line so as not to upset other moderate Mideast leaders upon whom the United States heavily relies. The current diplomat and former Egypt ambassador currently in Egypt on behalf of the Obama administration said just a few days ago that Mubarak should not step down but should oversee the transition until his term is up in September. Further, Obama has not made the same mistake which Jimmy Carter did when as president in 1979 he completely believed the Ayatollah Rhuhollah Khomeini who “reassured” the U.S. of his pro-democracy leanings – and with Carter’s help, ousted the Shah.

See what happened?

At least Obama understands Islamic fundamentalism, which Carter did not – which is surprising for those of us who have studied the Sigmund Freud view of the unconscious part of the human mind. It is the experiences in your “Sigmund Freud formative years” which unconsciously control everything we do.

The reason Obama’s realism in this regard is surprising is that for six of his first 10 or 11 formative years he was educated in an Islamic school in Indonesia. Finally, another mistake made by the bias of the media is that the pro-Mubarak demonstrators are routinely labeled “thugs, goons and criminals.” Nowhere has there been any evidence of that.

Harvey J. Schramm

Brentwood