Anti-American sentiment is beginning to find a place among pro-Democracy demonstrators in Tahrir Square in Cairo. President Obama is taking his time demanding that Hosni Mubarak resign his office and/or leave the country, taking his stolen $70 billion wealth with him.
But President Obama has recent history staring him down: The last time the United States took the side of pro-Democracy demonstrators was in 1979 when President Carter withdrew support for the Shah of Iran with the result being the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the shit-storm that has caused since. But Kohmeini’s rise had more to do with US reluctance (Carter, Ford, Reagan, Bush I) to face down Mr. Khomeini than anything else. And when pro-Democracy Iranians took to the street by the hundreds of thousands in 2010, the United States remained largely silent while the government of Iran slaughtered thousands of Iranians and quashed the demonstrations with an iron fist. At the same time our allies increased their investment in that country and contracted for additional oil exports thus strengthening the Iranian government.
But Egypt is not Iran and the “dreaded” Muslim Brotherhood is not likely to move toward a theocratic constitution as Egypt, unlike Iran of 1979, depends almost entirely on foreign tourists and hard currency for its survival. Additionally, the demonstrators in Egypt present a cosmopolitan and progressive face that is different than their neighbors, is more western and looks to a future free from theocratic dominance.
So what can we do? For one, President Obama needs to let the Egyptian people know that we’re sorry for not holding Hosni Mubarak to a standard high enough to pass international democratic muster. (For you right-wingers, making amends is not un-American unless you believe our national hubris is sacred, regardless of its validity.) For another, the President needs to send a high-ranking envoy to meet directly with the opposition to signal our support for the next government so long as that government is willing to maintain the current status quo of peace with Israel, Libya and the Sudan. Lastly, the President needs to tell Mr. Mubarak that his Foreign Aid checks are going to be worthless within 36 hours if he does not step down from the Presidency and pass his powers on to the newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman. We don’t need to force him to leave, only to resign the Presidency.
Will any of this guarantee that Islamic revolution will not spread to Egypt once Mubarak leaves? No, it’s too late for that. Thirty years of US non-intervention with that revolution combined with a lack of military confrontation has allowed Iran to plant active terrorist cells in every nation on the planet, to develop nuclear weapons with the ability to deliver to targets anywhere in the world and to arm Hezbollah and Hamas to a point where the next war will create tens of thousands of dead Israeli’s, all within their plans to rid the world of America and its influence.
But if we stand up to Iran and force them through whatever means are necessary to engage democracy and end their destabilizing nuclear program and if we stop supporting dictatorial regimes in the middle east, at the very least the Arab Street will give pause before chanting “Death To America!”
It’s already too late to undo the human rights abuses that have taken place under our protection but we can look to the future and begin a process of reconciliation, a process that cannot take place so long as our foreign policy finds comfort in the continued support of totalitarian, theocratic and non-democratic regimes.
One last thing: When Barack Obama was elected as President of the United States there was an immense amount of hope among democrats in the middle east believing that he would change US foreign policy in favor of democracy and against totalitarianism. It is most unfortunate that this was not the case.
Popularity: 5% [?]
It’s not my pain, Chris. It’s just the world as it is and not the way some would wish to see it.
I’m still awaiting a suggestion that would make the Iranian government stand down. Nothing has worked to date.
Vince, then I have to ask this:
Iran has The Bomb. Iran also has missiles that can reach virtually anywhere in the region. Nothing the United States has done has swayed them from their primary objective – the utter destruction of the US – and it would only take a single, small yield EMP nuclear burst 40 miles above the eastern US to wipe out all traces of civilization across half the nation. Then there’s the nuclear attacks on Haifa and Tel Aviv combined with an invasion of 20,000 Hezbollah soldiers from Lebanon. That’s the threat we face THIS VERY MOMENT.
So what do you suggest we do? Talk to them some more? Beg for our lives? Cry? I’m open for ideas but until a better one comes along I’m going for what I suggested earlier: we turn that nation into a sheet of fused sand.
Sure militant Muslims will be pissed off but you think they’re not now and we have no friends left to lose in the region. We’re the most ham-fisted Empire that every existed and pretty much everything we touch turns to shit. (Except we’re really good at extracting money from the poor to make the rich richer.)
But I’m also willing to bet that a concerted, total and devastating military strike against all their military and communications centers as well as a few oil pipelines would get their attention and bring the regime to its knees. It is *not* a majority regime, by the way and once down the Iranians will take matters into their own hands.
However, if they should attack Israel, even through their agents in Hezbollah, how many Iranians do you would be vaporized when Israel rained their own nuclear arsenal into Tehran? half a million? More?
How much longer are you willing to wait? Apparently the US government has a fucking death wish for they’re willing to wait until they are no more.
Still, what’s your suggestion?
Extremists are everywhere, if your suggesting an Iranian revolution, I’m all for it, if you were to say we must expand S.T.A.R.T. & enforcement, I’m in. If you are saying, “nuke them first before they nuke us” I’m out, man and I don’t think that is the least bit ridiculous. Then again I would rather be dead I think, than to see that happen. But I will say… I wish I was in Den Haag right about now. Or at least in Amsterdam before their new right wing grows any stronger, and the Canals remain frozen over 6 months of the year. If we do not get with it soon, like NOW…. You are right- We a re fucked!
Hang in there Jeff! I feel your pain.
Chris, again… you’re seeing the conflict with Iran from American eyes and that has been our national failing all along. We must begin looking at things through the eyes of our adversaries. Let me assure you that the current government in Iran is armed and dangerous and desires nothing less than the total destruction of the United States. And… they have the ability to do so.
If we don’t act in a very serious and determined way that goes miles beyond “being nice” we are going to be picking our asses out of our noses from the kick in the behind they’re going to give us.
Who is funding our enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Who has sent $3 billion to the 20,000 armed and trained fighters in south Lebanon just waiting for their opportunity to pounce on Israel? Which nation is funding terrorism all around the world? And which nation has the fucking BOMB?
Oh? If you said, “Iran” you’d be right. And then you have to ask what good our efforts have done all along? Are they spending less in Afghanistan or Lebanon? Did they stop building their BOMB? Did they make peace with Israel?
Oh? If you said, “No!” you’d be right again.
I cannot stress enough how dangerous the situation is and how little the Iranian government cares about you, your feelings, your world view or anything that has to do with you. You are an American and as such you must die. That is their goal and unless we act first they will succeed.
Please don’t conflate run of the mill Muslims with the Iranian Islamic Revolution as they are not one and the same but they will all dance in the streets together when Tel Aviv and New York are smoking ruins.
Then what will your hippie, “let’s sit around the campfire and sing kum bah ya” philosophies be good for?
Sometimes you have to kick some ass and now is the time.
Love the editorial and shared it. Disagree with you about Iran though. Attacking Iran would result in a huge backlash against the U.S. and against democracy in general. I also believe that we should be strengthening the international system´s ability to deal with this rather than weakening it further by taking unilateral action (again).
Seems to me that you are… in a way… profiling Muslims in this argument Jeff, and have temporarily forgotten innocent, peace loving progressives and closeted atheists and gays that want freedom and peace, internet, and higher education.
It would be facetious of me to give you a suggestion, but I know Vincenzo (one of our adopted sons), is more than He is a world traveler on the road for more than a year couple of years? from his Home in NOLA… he is highly touted for his work at http://www.levees.org, He is highly educated, especially in these matters, and gay….
oh and half Jewish:~) (the other half pretty obvious)
I am sure he will contribute more here. Why must the US always be the bully Jeff ? Armament Sales?
I ‘m good for the Love & Peace & disarmament side of things.
( I’m an old hippie born in 1950…and Left of Pete Seeger! )
You should friend Vincenzo aka “Vince” on facebook if for nothing else the remarkable photos he has been taking these last couple of years. I’m just glad he got out of Egypt (barely)
P.S. I still say it was a great article!
The problem is that Vince, like the US government, is thinking about this from a western perspective and not as the Arabs would see it. Arabs recognize strength and power and dogged determination while we do our best not to step on anyone’s toes. Think about how badly mangled our culture is now because of 30 years of “political correctness”? That’s how ineffective our foreign policy is.
But I wonder what Vince would suggest as an immediate method of stopping and destroying Iran’s nuclear bombs and the missile’s they’re attached to.
The best way to deal with Iran is to blow the fuck out of the place and fuse its sands into glass.
I have to agree with Vincenzo here Jeff
Thanks Chris.
The part I left out was that dealing with Iran requires an all-out military strike on every one of their military and communications centers and export oil pipelines along with an Israeli attack of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. All that combined with an immediate international freezing of Iranian assets should put them on notice that we’re sick and tired of their shit, that it’s time for them to grow the fuck up and deal with the world as it is and not in the way some over-zealous minority religious cult would like it to be. Yes, a lot of people will die but many fewer than would if they were to strike first…. and we don’t have that much time.
The Obama administration, like Bush before it, has allowed Iran to get dangerously close to annihilating the United States, Israel and pretty much anyone who has ever said, “hello!” to us in the past.
When their sponsored terrorist groups realize they’re not getting any more money nor training from the obliterated IRGC, (Hezbollah is getting hundreds of millions of dollars a year), and Iranian oil money ceases to flow to their bank accounts they’ll come to terms with a new world, one in which no one will any longer accept them as a threat.
Great editorial Jeff – shared!