The Bush administration brought about the fall of Saddam Hussein by invading Iraq with millions of lives lost.
Eight years later millions of Egyptians brought about regime change by protesting on the streets. Three hundred people were brutally killed by Mubarak’s police thugs.
The Obama administration announced the departure of Mubarak in Egypt but the dictator stayed thumbing his nose at the US in the same way Netanyahu does.
Millions more went out on the streets.
Mubarak fled to Sharm el Sheikh – an Israeli-owned resort city on the Red Sea.
Working behind the scences, did the US then orchestrate the ‘transition’ to the military supreme council in order to shore up US strategic interests in the Suez state and to keep the Egypt/Israel peace agreement in place?
As the military took over and declared its support for Israel and the US thousands of Egyptian workers went on strike across many industries.
What is the US administration doing behind the scenes where once it invaded countries? Where are those Wikileaks documents when you need them?
Ian Curr
16 Feb 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G793yhiMA5k&feature=related
Egypt is the second largest recipient of US military aid in the region behind Israel. There is no doubt that US influence Egypt is without doubt a prime example of what Noam Chomsky describes as ‘Neo-Colonialism’ – a strategy first used in the Phillipines whereby strategic and economic interests are served by a compliant and complicit elite and the maintenance of the rule of law effected by a brutal and repressive police force. The same could be said of the West Bank in Palestine with the US trained ‘Dayton’s Army’ effectively crushing any public opposition or protest while a lazy and autocratic elite (Palestinian Authority) enjoy the perks of foreign supplied wealth and privilege while the common people experience ever increasing hardship and social exclusion from the process of democracy.
It has been said, quite accurately, that the US supports democracy if it serves its own strategic and economic interests otherwise it prefers the more manageable model of dictatorial autocracies backed by military and police power.
I see no reason for the ‘working model’ in Egypt to change however the figurehead will be replaced. Historically, once the US backed dictator becomes unpopular the US will switch sides and replace him. Examples of this strategy litter the historiography of neo-colonialism including, but not limited to, Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran, Hosni Mubarak, and include most middle eastern states that historically base social models on tribal/feudal systems.
The rise of the ‘client state’ in the age of oil has stimulated neo-colonialist policies from traditional colonial entities including Britain, France and to a lesser degree Holland. The need for compliant and repressive regimes in regions upon which the west and particularly the US depend for energy is ever present. The UK’s relationship with Libya is a good example.
When the Egyptian people demand democracy and the army take over, the citizenry should be wary. The spectre of civil war which guarantees the exhaustion of resources, the political and social division of the people and a ready market for the west’s arms industry may disrupt the peace that has been maintained in Egypt through repressive techniques and the will of the west.
Should the largest Arab nation in the world decide, (as a Tunisian commentator recently attested), that Egypt’s continued complicity in the blockade of Gaza is a source of national shame, then perhaps we can hope for some meaningful policy changes in Palestine. Egypt may review its unconditional and unholy alliance with Israel and the US and call on the Arab world to demand justice for Palestine.
The workers from the states of the mid-west are revolting. Here are some unionists from Wisconsin singing Woody Guthrie’s “This land is your Land”. There is a spirit of socialism in the US that has been weak but remians to this day. They have called for a general strike against austherity measures brought on by the Wsiconsin governor.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kknr-advKkg]
Good Ian,
You put your finger on the right spot and forwarded the right question.
As you know, mainstream media, Western States, and Bahrain’s regime are now showing events in Bahrain as part of sect struggle and have nothing to do with independence, freedom and human being rights.
It is critical time for the US and Israel, their existence and interests in the Middle East at stake.
The entire Arabic world is at revolt and Iranian people will join them soon.
Best regards,
Louay Alzaher
See http://iraqibeacon.wordpress.com