Follow on TwitterWATCH: US State Dept. Spokesman Struggles To Explain US Hypocrisy In Egypt
Here’s an excellent al Jazeera interview that perfectly demonstrates America’s misguided and hypocritical Middle East policy.
US State Department Spokesman PJ Crowley gets tongue-tied trying to explain how the United States can on one hand claim to support the Egyptian protesters in their fight against torture, poverty, corruption & unemployment, while simultaneously propping up their brutal dictator Hasni Mubarak with $1.3 billion per year.
The rhetorical tightrope Crowley attempts to walk will leave you cringing. Which could be said of most US State Department press briefings these days.
I encourage the “They hate us for our freedom” crowd to take a moment, and watch this video clip:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmEcQMwprIo[/youtube]
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America is full of crap – same thing will happen here in the states soon enough.
The Egyptian protesters state they are protesting against torture, poverty, corruption & unemployment, and when I read that my first thought was: “those grievances perfectly describes what’s happening in the US right now”.
While fully aware of U.S hypocrisy on this issue, if they didn’t provide economic support, would the Egyptian govt. even listen to anything they have to say? Diplomacy is about establishing relationships and alliances with standing governments in order to influence them, not change or overthrow them. Honestly, if the U.S. were pushing one way or another in Egypt, they would then be accused of interfering (which they do plenty of).
Just by being engaged and being a partner with Egypt the message that funding could be withdrawn is expressly implied. And any kind of talk about what Egypt should do will be told to them directly, out of respect. If U.S. representatives start talking smack on Al Jazeera, any influence we have will be out the window.
The U.S is already too involved in king-making. A firm message to democratically engage needs to come from a coalition of influential democratic states, not some kind of unilateral arm-twisting by the U.S. As we’ve seen, that never really works out too well.
The $1.3 billion the US gives Egypt was set up during the Camp David peace agreement with Israel. Jimmy Carter promised Egypt the aid if they’d agree to be friends with Israel (a country committed to ethnically cleansing Palestinians from E. Jerusalem and building up a complex apartheid-like system in the W. Bank).
Egypt is run by a brutal dictator in Mubarak – despised by his own people, and not much different than Sadam Hussein (whom we also financially supported for years).
My point is the US has a long well-documented history of using its foreign aid, not as leverage to push countries towards democracy or to respect human rights, but to open up their economic markets to our multi-nationals. That is ALL the US cares about, and it continues to come back and bite us in the ass (SEE: al Qaeda).
Mubarak has been governing in this fashion for 30 years. We’ve been giving Egypt these billions since before Mubarak, back when Sadat signed the Camp David peace treaty w/ Israel.
Are you seriously contending that our aid is being used as leverage to promote democracy and respect for human rights?
What is really adorable is how Crowley (and actually the entire US Department of State) disregards the murdering of hundreds of Egyptian activists under the excuse that “Mubarak is a friend of Israel.”
That sums up neatly what democracy really means in the mouths of the hijackers of America: Repression of own people (from economic prostitution to the IMF and USAID, to cracking down on any opposition) while watching Israel’s back as it oppresses Palestinians.