Conditional Freedom

[unhappycamper]

Conditional Freedom
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany
By R. Klüver
Translated By Alex Wilkerson
28 January 2011
Edited by Gheanna Emelia

Hosni Mubarak is Barack Obama’s most important ally in the Middle East. Therefore, the U.S. is only supporting reforms halfheartedly — they need Mubarak as a bastion against the radical Islamists of the region. Either way, a nightmare is lurking from the U.S. point of view.

As if the U.S. didn’t already have enough grievances in the Middle East. So frighteningly little is going on between the Israelis and the Palestinians that Barack Obama didn’t even mention the peace treaty he once actively demanded in his speech last Tuesday evening before Congress. In Tunisia, the Americans were so surprised by the downfall of their dictator that it threw them for a real loop. And in Lebanon, a pro-Syrian prime minister and friend of Washington’s was recently ousted. So it goes now with Egypt.

From the U.S.’ standpoint, the situation could develop into a nightmare if Egypt — in somewhat of a contrast to Tunisia — allows strong radical Islamists to take advantage of the unrest and take over the government. “That would lead to a fundamental shift in the power structure of the region, which would present itself as a far greater threat to U.S. interests than even the Iranian Revolution,” according to a study by the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations.

Sure enough, the mass protests on the streets of Cairo are presenting the U.S. government with a dilemma. On one side is Obama’s clear policy of supporting freedom of opinion and human rights worldwide. On the other side, Hosni Mubarak’s government is America’s most important ally in the region. For decades, Cairo has reliably represented U.S. interests, and only to Afghanistan, Israel and Iraq does the U.S. provide more monetary aid. Egypt’s army alone is showered with $1.3 billion yearly, an army that not only serves the national defense, but also serves to protect the inner regime. On Wednesday, the first rumors arose that soldiers were being stationed in the city of Suez in order to help contain the demonstrations — allegedly with arms and crowd-control devices that were financed by the U.S.

The indecisiveness in Washington was perceived clearly by the middle of the week. “We’re monitoring this situation,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs somewhat naively put on the record, and continued with a vague stance: "We consistently have advocated for the universal rights of assembly, of free speech, of political reform." Gibbs referred to the speech of his boss two years ago in Cairo, in which Obama had reminded the authoritarian regimes in the Middle East that the people of the Arabian world inevitably seek more personal freedom. He also made it plain however, that “Egypt is an important ally.”

[hobbit709]

1. Karma bites, and sometimes it bites hard.