Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Editorial

As reports emerge that more than 1 million Egyptians brought the protests to a new crescendo Tuesday, the U.S. still appears to be treading most carefully.

Frank Wisner, Washington’s former ambassador to Cairo, arrived in Egypt to meet with Hosni Mubarak. While the public has yet to learn the messages he carried to the 82-year-old president, the choice of Wisner attests to the kid gloves that the Obama administration is using with Mubarak; Wisner since 2009 has worked for Patton Boggs, a firm which lobbies on behalf of and does PR for the disgraced Mubarak regime.

The current U.S. ambassador to Cairo, Margaret Scobey, spoke Tuesday with Mohamed ElBaradei, the opposition figure entrusted to negotiate with the regime and a potential successor to Mubarak. Scobey and Wisner have not spoken in detail about the U.S. approach; the White House continues to mince words with talk of an “orderly transition” and its aversion to dictating anything to anyone.

What Obama and Hillary Clinton should really be declaring for all the world to hear is that free and fair elections must happen as soon as possible, and neither Hosni Mubarak nor his son Gamal should run in them.

Of course it is to be expected that the U.S. would have some trepidation about unrest in a nation of more than 80 million that plays a central role in the Middle East, and a bit of fear as an ally of 30 years seems set to be toppled.

Unfortunately, this is far from the first time that Washington has watched a similar script unfold, and yet U.S. president after president – as well as the entire policy establishment – has failed to learn from history. The same scene played out with the Shah of Iran in 1979. Before George W. Bush decided to take down Saddam Hussein, his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had in 1983 in Baghdad cozied up to the tyrant as a trusted ally. Then again, Bush had also in 2004 welcomed the recently deposed Tunisian dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to the White House as a longtime U.S. partner.

Washington would not find itself in this situation time after time if it were able to learn a simple lesson. No matter how much aid the U.S. dumps into a country (with Washington’s favor almost always falling mainly on that nation’s armed forces) and no matter how close Washington buddies up to a ruler, the most important part of any country is its people. People’s patience will run out on their dignity being trampled and their future being snuffed out.

After all, the ideal model of government is of the people, by the people and for the people, as an esteemed American once said. It is truly a tragedy that the U.S. so sorely needs a lecture that the same holds true for other nations as well; the U.S. would do well to say so and behave accordingly.