The Egyptians must be allowed to make their decisions, free from interference from the USA. Their friendship of convenience, over the past 30 years, has resulted in repression, poverty and rendition, to the detriment of Egyptians. This is the story of the past 50 years, with the Cold War/ and the threat of Communism as the first excuse and Islamic extremism and terrorism as the most recent. In the name of stability and security, rights were extinguished, freedoms curtailed and autocracy and repression became the order of the day, (even in the USA, with the Patriot Act, being used against "enemies within", who were mostly "non-whites", even though most acts of violence/terrorism in the USA were carried out by "whites'.
The double standard/ hypocrisy of the USA can be seen in the quick and clear support for the protesters in Iran, whereas in Egypt and Tunisia and in Bahrain, Jordan, Algeria and Yemen ( all friends of convenience), the message was muted and heavily nuanced.....yes we support your rights, but don't rock the boat too much and do what "our" friends in the military tell you..... Democracy is the rule of law, of equality of rights, of free, fair and regular election, of civilian rule, of respect for minority rights, but only we, Americans i.e whites, really understand and appreciate it, whereas, you in the Arab/Muslim world, who have no " democratic values" must be careful or else it will be chaos and ruin. This insult continues to be the anthem, of the "friends" in the West. And let us not forget "our Israeli friends", who are quite concerned now that their "buddies", Mubarak and ben Ali are out and Abdullah and others are under pressure, to reform.
The youths of Egypt and Tunisia, along with their counterpart in Jordan, Algeria, Yemen, Iran and eleswhere in the Middle East are not their grand- parents or even their parents. They are more educated, more aware of the outside world ( tens of thousands have studied abroad and many more hundreds of thousands have access to the internet and Face-book and Twitter and al-Jazeera..... their coverage of Egypt was far superior to the "western" media). less cowed by the gerontocracy in power, tired of being unemployed and living in poverty and repression, while the autocrats, their families and their henchmen live in luxury, in walled palaces (Heliopolis), flouting their wealth and their disdain.
In 1968, the arrogant and increasingly decrepit Charles de Gaulle, on being forced out of power, by the youths and trade unions of France, raged "Apres moi, C'est deluge". There was no "deluge", because the people of France were resilient. The Fifth Republic, which de Gaulle helped to create, in 1958, had the strong constitutional underpinnings to succeed. Egypt has earned the right to build such a constitution......Good Luck and keep out the Americans and other"sunshine friends"
The double standard/ hypocrisy of the USA can be seen in the quick and clear support for the protesters in Iran, whereas in Egypt and Tunisia and in Bahrain, Jordan, Algeria and Yemen ( all friends of convenience), the message was muted and heavily nuanced.....yes we support your rights, but don't rock the boat too much and do what "our" friends in the military tell you..... Democracy is the rule of law, of equality of rights, of free, fair and regular election, of civilian rule, of respect for minority rights, but only we, Americans i.e whites, really understand and appreciate it, whereas, you in the Arab/Muslim world, who have no " democratic values" must be careful or else it will be chaos and ruin. This insult continues to be the anthem, of the "friends" in the West. And let us not forget "our Israeli friends", who are quite concerned now that their "buddies", Mubarak and ben Ali are out and Abdullah and others are under pressure, to reform.
The youths of Egypt and Tunisia, along with their counterpart in Jordan, Algeria, Yemen, Iran and eleswhere in the Middle East are not their grand- parents or even their parents. They are more educated, more aware of the outside world ( tens of thousands have studied abroad and many more hundreds of thousands have access to the internet and Face-book and Twitter and al-Jazeera..... their coverage of Egypt was far superior to the "western" media). less cowed by the gerontocracy in power, tired of being unemployed and living in poverty and repression, while the autocrats, their families and their henchmen live in luxury, in walled palaces (Heliopolis), flouting their wealth and their disdain.
In 1968, the arrogant and increasingly decrepit Charles de Gaulle, on being forced out of power, by the youths and trade unions of France, raged "Apres moi, C'est deluge". There was no "deluge", because the people of France were resilient. The Fifth Republic, which de Gaulle helped to create, in 1958, had the strong constitutional underpinnings to succeed. Egypt has earned the right to build such a constitution......Good Luck and keep out the Americans and other"sunshine friends"
