Written by Harrison Kelly   

The United States is now the world’s greatest empire. We have been admired by many nations for our long standing system of governance and for our unsurpassed economy that produces 25 percent of the world’s economic output. We pride ourselves as the nation that stands for freedom, justice universal human rights, and democratic government. Our free market economy with many regulatory constraints has been the envy of the world.

But the United States is being tested as never before. The citizen protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and other Arab countries present a major challenge to the status quo of American foreign policies. For most of our history we have dealt with less powerful countries with a heavy dose of arrogance. Often we used dictators or despots as puppets to implement policies that were beneficial to the United States in building its empire, while turning a blind eye to their heavy handed and greedy behavior toward their citizens. Egypt is a very real case in point. Thirty years ago, after Egypt fought and generally lost five wars against Israel, President Anwar Sadat was convinced by President Jimmy Carter to reach a peace treaty with Israel, as that nation agreed to withdraw from Egypt’s Sinai region occupied in the 1967 war. Our President was convinced by the words of Israel that it would lead to peace and a separate state for the Palestinian people. While that never happened it left the United States with a promise to provide economic and military assistance to the two countries amounting to $3 billion per year, a commitment that is honored to this day for Israel, while the US assistance to Egypt has been gradually reduced. But assistance to Egypt’s military forces continues at a level of $1.3 billion per year.

After Sadat was assassinated Hosni Mubarak, a fellow military officer became President of Egypt, and a puppet of the United States. He has ruled the nation with an iron hand, having declared a state of emergency (martial law) after Sadat’s assassination. Citizens have virtually no right of habeas corpus and elections are customarily rigged to assure that Mubarak and his hand picked parliamentary candidates are “elected” with a very high percentage of the votes. To enforce his domination Mubarak has built a security apparatus of 1.3 uniformed police force, secret agents and other security forces. He has presided over an economy that has given him a family fortune estimated at $70 million and similar wealth for a few other citizens while the vast majority of his subjects live on less than $2 a day.

Over the past 20 years I have lived and worked in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. I have formed numerous friendships in those countries, especially in Egypt over the past 14 years. Such friendships include Coptic Christians, as well as moderate and extremely devout Muslims. I have found that virtually all Egyptians hold America and its citizens in high esteem. An Egyptian friend put it this way - “We love you guys and we love the American people and you know it is simply because Egyptian people are so kind and you lived among the simple Falaheen (farmers) and you exactly know what I mean, ...”

I have to say he is absolutely correct. My wife and I have never been in a country where esteem for US citizens is so openly and enthusiastically expressed at all levels of society. I have often engaged in lively discussions on economic and political matters where the admiration for American ideals and economic success is deeply expressed.

But as I closely follow the series of events unfolding in Egypt, I am concerned that perceptions of Americans by Egyptians who are struggling to overthrow their brutal dictatorship are starting to be questioned. As an indication, the 61 year old friend mentioned above, who along with his wife has participated in the Tahrir demonstrations, added - “but we really started to hate your administration”. Their view is that our government has not expressed stronger support for their cause. It has not taken aggressive actions to put pressure on Egypt’s dictator to resign and to encourage and even assist the opposition to rapidly and peacefully transition to a real democracy.

Instead they hear American authorities and commentators expressing fear of a government takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood and the creation of a radical regime leading to Sharia law. They hear pundits expressing concern that Israel, “our most special and democratic ally in the Middle East”, could be threatened by that development. But under the surface they see Americans with an equally ominous fear, that even a democratic Egyptian regime would threaten or summarily cancel the peace treaty with Israel as a way to force movement to a two state solution with the Palestinians.

The question arises: Is the conventional wisdom in the United States and Israel totally wrong and dysfunctional? The American understanding and bias against Islam and the bogeyman of Muslim Brotherhood is an illusion that is aggressively promoted by Israel for its own benefit. Looking objectively at the political situation in the United States, is the specter of worldwide Jewish Zionism, and radical evangelical Christians who support them, a much more dangerous threat to peace, stability, democracy and freedom in the Middle East? Is it hypocritical for American pundits and political leaders to express lip service to democracy and freedom while tacitly supporting the very dictator who has denied those things to the Egyptian people for 30 years, all the while receiving massive American economic and military aid? Has the economic and military aid to Israel stopped that nation from confiscating more and more land for Israeli settlers? Has it brought Palestinians and Israelis any closer to a two state solution? Has it given Israel greater long term security?

The current panic in the United States and Israel about the potential changes that could result from upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan is prima facie evidence questioning the prevailing US position. Despite the rhetoric about freedom and democracy the US and Israel are hypocritical and fearful of having democracy come to those and other Middle Eastern countries. Why? Because it could mean Israel will have to make peace with the Palestinians and give up their dream of dominating all of historical Palestine. As for the United States, its long held and totally wrong view of protecting the “democratic state of Israel as a bulwark against radical Islam” is now out of date. Fast moving events in Egypt and other countries will most likely force the US to accept a new order.

Does the United States empire really believe in freedom and democracy for all countries even if it challenges our anachronistic and erroneous views? Only time will tell.

Article by Kelly M. Harrison
http://zerogrowth.wordpress.com/