Hussain Abdul-Hussain

In the midst of the mess they call a revolution, Egyptians agree on little. But when it comes to their position on the United States, they seem to be in consensus: Most Egyptians hate America like never before.

 

And while it is understandable that the Muslim Brotherhood blames Washington for their misfortunes, the anti-American positions of General Abdul-Fatah Sissi and his supporters are mind boggling.

 

"You [Americans] left the Egyptians, you turned your back on the Egyptians and they won’t forget that," Sissi told The Washington Post's Lally Weymouth. 

 

It is hard to tell what Sissi meant when he said America had turned its back on Egypt. Year after year, since 1979, the United States has generously shipped $1.5 billion USD of military hardware and assistance to Sissi's army, making Egypt the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid after Israel. U.S. aid makes up one-third of the Egyptian army's $4.5 billion USD annual budget. The aid package is equivalent to half a percentage point of Egypt's GDP.

 

But despite all the money Washington gives Egypt, Americans get "you turned your back on us" from Cairo's strongman.

 

Looking deeper, it is easy to find the disconnect between Sissi's words and his deeds. America's $1.5 billion USD has guaranteed navigation for itself and its allies through the Suez Canal. It has also bought flight rights for U.S. military aircraft roaming the region. The U.S. aid has also secured – even if intermittently – the Egyptian border with Israel against terrorists, brigands, and other sorts of outlaws.

 

Like his predecessors, Sissi has delivered on America's strategic interests in Egypt. Also like his predecessors, Sissi has been talking out of both sides of his mouth: Praising links with Washington in private, and trashing the United States in public, in a way designed to win him popular support.

 

In fact, Sissi subscribes to the favorite Egyptian, and overall Arab, idea of blaming outsiders for domestic failures. "The U.S. interest and the popular will of the Egyptians don’t have to conflict. We always asked the U.S. officials to provide advice to the former president to overcome his problems," he told Weymouth.

 

So Sissi is angry with the U.S. for its presumed failure in advising toppled President Mohamed Morsi.

 

But why is Morsi's miserable performance Washington's problem? And what did America do that Sissi did not do? After all, the U.S. accepted the will of the Egyptian people by dealing with a long-time "frenemy," the elected Muslim Brotherhood, just like Sissi accepted Morsi's election and Morsi's decree to retire senior army officers Hussein Tantawi and Sami Anan. The decree opened the way for Sissi to become army chief and defense minister in the Muslim Brotherhood's cabinet.

 

Maybe, through joining Morsi's government, Sissi was giving the Brotherhood a chance, so why should the United States be blamed for having done the same?

 

Since the July 3 coup, a frenzy has swept most Egyptians, even the sanest among them. It made them go into confrontation with anyone who did not subscribe to their version of democracy, where rallies substitute ballot boxes as a measure of popular will.

 

The Obama administration, for its part, was among the very few who stopped short of labeling Sissi's toppling of Morsi as a coup, and instead showered praise on Sissi's act, calling it a "second chance at democracy."

 

Yet Obama conspiring with Sissi didn't mean that the world had to buy their semantics. The most respected of intellectuals and media outlets, like The Economist, use – without hesitation – the word coup to describe the toppling of Morsi.

 

Perhaps seeing the world defy their bid to call their coup "the people's will" made Egyptians, including Sissi, angrier with the U.S. In the rallies that followed the one on June 30, a giant Sissi poster was erected between a poster of Gamal Abdul Nasser and one of, well, Russia's Vladimir Putin. There is no explanation for the Putin poster other than Egyptians thinking it would spite Americans.

 

For the past few decades, America has been suffering from populist autocrats who befriend Washington in secret, and badmouth it in public. Sissi joining this chorus is clearly not in America's interest, and it is time for Washington to realize that its national interests are not only over flights and intelligence cooperation, but also about its friends, autocratic or democratic governments, facilitating its effort at shining its image.

 

Without a good image, America's wars overseas will be long and costly. And for $1.5 billion USD in annual aid, the least Sissi can do is cut his populist rhetoric, and thank U.S. taxpayers for their largesse.