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Washington's Egyptian Nightmare
As I watch events unfolding on the streets of Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt and elsewere in the region I'm reminded of a summer I spent in Egypt studying Arabic language and Middle East politics at The American University in Cairo. For a time I was booked into the upscale Shepheard Hotel (on the Fulbright Commission's dime) on the banks of the Nile in downtown Cairo. Over the course of several weeks I came to know Mohammed, my regular breakfast server, and learned that he had a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering but owing to the abysmal economic situation considered himself fortunate to have any job to support his family.
One morning a young Kuwaiti prince swept in, sat down at an adjacent table and immediately began to berate Mohammed's as if he were a servant. As nearly as I could tell from my rudimentay Arabic he complained about the tea water's temperature, insufficient shine on the silverware and the food's quality. I noticed that Mohammed bowed, accepted this humiliating treatment and profusely apologized to avoid offending this arrogant punk.
After the Kuwaiti left, I asked Mohammed about their exchange and he replied "Yes, that happens quite frequently. These spoiled rich kids from the Gulf come to Cairo to whore around and load up on luxury goods. Yes, it's difficult to be treated this way but I can't afford to lose this job. They can do this way because the oil happens to be under their sand. My hope is that some day we will overthrow all these corrupt regimes, starting with our own, and this democratic movement will spread to the Gulf states. My dream is that we could use the oil wealth to benefit all people of the region and even extend it to people around the Third World. Then he wistfully said, "If your government didn't support these wretched regimes my dream might come true. Please tell your citizens that we are suffering because your government backed Sadat and now Mubarak."
Of course U.S. policymaker's recurring nightmare is that genuine democratization breaks out in in Egypt and spreads to the oil monarchies. And one assumes that at this moment Washington is doing everything in its power to sabotage this possibility or try to mitigate the damage. In a comment that won't surprise the Arab street, Secretary of State Clinton recently credited Mubarek's police state with "looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people."
We know that Mubarek's predecessor, "Pharoah" Anwar Sadat, sold out the Palestinians for thirty pieces of silver - U.S. taxpayer subsidies have averaged $2 billion a year for 30 years -- from Washington in 1979 and paid for it by being assassinated in 1981. I vividly recall the absolute puzzlement on the faces of U.S. journalists covering Sadat's funeral as they searched in vain for grieving Egyptians.
One hopes the current democratic stirrings succeed in toppling the three-decade old Mubarak dictatorhsip and then spread to Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and beyond. As Egyptian journalist Hossam El-Hamabwy recently noted about Tunisia, "We don't have only one Ben Ali in the Arab world; we have 22 Ben Alis, and they all need to go." I'm cautiously optimistic that more chickens have (finally) come home to roost in this part of the world for U.S. foreign policy and that it's yet another indicator of a declining U.S. empire.
Finally, some thirty years ago, when I made some research and study visits to the region, most of the activists I encountered were secular, nominally Muslim and sometimes Christian. Thanks to U.S. opposition to nationalism, U.S./Israeil intransigence toward Palestinian rights and Washington's embrace of brutal dictatorhips, "Islam is the answer" gained added support. I could be wrong but more recently, it seems that younger Arabs are returning to something more secular, a yearning for basic human rights, decency and democracy untethered to say, the Muslim Brotherhood or other sclerotic ideologies. And as we take inspiration from those in the streets of Tunisia and Egypt we'd do well to consider how we might match their courageous commitment.
14 Comments so far
Show AllOppressive regimes in the Middle East strike down all opposition politics in their nations, mostly with US support because secular politics are likely to be interpreted as socialism by American monopolies who control the shadow government, leaving Islam as the only surviving institution. The government that forms in their wakes when such despotism falls is therefore likely to seek supra-national Islamic religious goals instead of widely-shared, but disparate secular interests.
Arnold Toynbee predicted that the central struggle of the 21st century would not be against "socialism" but against Islam, which is in fact the emergent result of the monopolies' war against socialism.
I think that is exactly right. The US has for decades, in the Middle East and around the world, constructed and maintained levees to prevent the natural flow of anti-colonial ideologies and political movements from entering what it considered the dangerous regions of the secular left, and only allowed the river of anti-colonial energy and ideas to flow through conceptual territory dominated by religious thought (which had its own negative consequences). Now, maybe those levees have been breached.
Class Act ,Kivals, briliant take on this very astute article. Thanks
peace, solidarity requires temporary inconvenience
For a very good analysis of the United States' marriage to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the 1973 oil embargo please read John Perkins' "Confessions of An Economic Hit Man" in which he details the MO by which America fostered relations with corrupt Middle Eastern regimes in exchange for the guaranteed flow of oil.
As ClassAct has already noted, Perkins also touches upon Toynbee by discussing how Toynbee's idea of a "War against Islam" was well known among the student population of Indonesia as far back as the late 60s and early 70s.
the writer writes: "Of course U.S. policymaker's recurring nightmare is that genuine democratization breaks out in in Egypt"
that's true but even worse i am sure they are shitting their pants at the notion that democracy might break out in fascist amerika
the barry soetero show is losing its audience by the day
maybe he should hook up with regis and do a punch and judy type deal
.
See the pyramids along the Nile
Watch the sunrise on a tropic isle
Just remember darlin' all the while
You belong to me
Love this song "you belong to me' Jo Stafford :-)
Will outrage in the Arab world spread?
If it does come to the Saudi royals- What will they throw at the people; American tear gas, pallets of American hundred dollar bills, or yank the gold plumbing fixtures from their palaces and defend their "ordained" privilege with sinks and toilets?
Perhaps, these giants of industry, job creation and innovation will flee to Texas, (land of adopted brothers) and muscle in on the action there.
Recall the recent attack on Copts and their almost immediate embrace by Egypt's muslims in a show of solidarity similar to what we're now witnessing. At the time, I thought the political implications omminous since it seemed a new political consciousness was being exhibited. As a result, we see a overtly secular rebellion calling for fundamental human rights and dismantling of an authoritarian governmental structure and its managers. As I wrote earlier, any possible sign of Islamic influence is being buried so there can be no use of the "terrorism card." If Egypt can transform itself into a genuine participatory democratic-republic, the antithesis of Rice's New Middle East will create a dynamic that's hard to stop.
You can watch the events in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East unfold on Al Jazeera's livestream broadcasting in English:
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
Amazing to see the courage of these people!
'Washington's Egyptian Nightmare'
We are watching live the results of Egypt's American Nightmare.
Mubarak's especially rotten, USA propped-up dictatorship in Egypt is 30 years old, yeah. But Egypt's almost unbroken popular tradition of tolerating and even WANTING dictatorship of one kind of another, is a much more daunting 4000+ years old.
While I strongly support the current uprising, there, if only because it might boot the ultra-fossilized mummy Mubarak and his rich people's party from power, I only do so on the assumption (a guarded hope, really), that whatever new government might emerge will be more democratic in both structure and intent, even if just a little bit. than anything the country has ever known in its past to-date.
Unless a structural deepening of democracy is the outcome of all this protest, or is at least someting that starts to empower an incipient process that then reliably moves TOWARD such an outcome, none of the current sturm und drang is going to mean shit for average Egyptians, except to get a lot of innocent people killed, while providing a chance for their oligarchs to replace Mubarak with, simply, a more PR-savvy despot/puppet.
As for the US government ever officially and openly supporting such a democracy-enhancing outcome in Egypt, now or in the future: I don't think that's ever going to happen until and unless Americans somehow manage to overthrew their own oligarchy.
"Of course U.S. policymaker's (sic) recurring nightmare is that genuine democratization breaks out in in Egypt..."
Of course US policymakers and oil stock holders fear democratic tendencies everywhere, especially on home soil. Heaven forbid that all the ordinary, working people of a nation should benefit from the wealth of the nation. Look at how much shit from the CIA/US the Venezuelans, an oil producing nation, have had to endure for taking this position.
Well, it might be a "nightmare" for Washington policy makers, but for people who really believe in democracy it is a dream come true. There is simply no other way the Egyptian people are going to get the old fossil Mubarak and his family out of power. They don't want a Mubarak Dynasty with his son taking it over, and now they're finally showing their willingness to stop that from happening.