In the State of the Union address delivered by President Obama on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 one small paragraph near the end of the speech struck me as yet another example of American hypocrisy, as implemented by a long brain-dead State Department. It appears that under both Presidents Bush and Obama the underfunded State Department has all but given up in the pursuit of a coherent American foreign policy.
Here is the paragraph taken directly from the White House release of President Obama's State of the Union address as posted on January 25 on the official WhiteHouse.Gov website. The remarks appear near the end of the speech, at about the 80% completion mark, and follow a quote from a man living in South Sudan about the recent elections there,“Now we want to be free.”
"And we saw that same desire to be free in Tunisia, where the will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator. And tonight, let us be clear: The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia, and supports the democratic aspirations of all people."
Yes, indeed, let us be clear about the American support for authoritarian President, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who in Mafia like style ruled and looted the country for a period of 23 years. Apparently, the president had a great deal of assistance from his wife, brother-in-law, and extended family members and cared less about the "will of the people".
In a January 26, 2011 New York Times topics article entitled "Rulers’ Lavish Lifestyles Fueled Anger" the following statement appears:
"Protesters seemed to direct much of their anger at the great wealth and lavish life of President Ben Ali’s second wife, Leila Trabelsi, a former hairdresser, and their extended family, most notably their son-in-law, the billionaire businessman Mohamed Sakher El Materi.
A gracious dinner at Mr. Materi’s home was detailed in a cable from the American ambassador to Tunisia that was released by the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks and fueled at least some of the outrage."
The outrage in Tunisia seemed to cut across all citizen's age groups but was led by large numbers of young people who are computer and Internet savvy. They know how to effectively use social media services, such as Facebook and Twitter, to organize their protests. Politicians in North Africa and the Middle East seem to have underestimated the power of the Internet in organizing protests.
The uprisings are not limited to Tunisia. Large-scale protests are now being observed in Egypt. Here is another article from the New York Times, that indicates the almost unthinkable is occurring in Mubarak's Egypt:" Egypt’s Young Seize Role of Key Opposition to Mubarak" By David D. Kirkpatrick and Michael Slackman, published: January 26, 2011.
The uprising in Egypt poses an especially acute problem for the United States President and the State Department. As in Tunisia, the United States has for many years supported Egypt with substantial foreign aid payments and military assistance. While proclaiming our support for freedom and democracy in the name of stability we have actually supported the rule of brutal dictators who governed as democratically elected presidents in name only.
In my opinion, American hypocrisy in such matters is bad policy indeed. Now that the former president of Tunisia has been forced to leave his country President Obama proclaims that "the will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator". Yet, our policy for the last 23 years has been to support that dictator. Surely, the citizens of Tunisia will find President Obama's remarks to be a bit insincere and offensive.
Now the United States is faced with an even greater diplomatic challenge in reacting to the uprisings in Egypt. President Mubarak has been in power since 1981 and even though he is well-known for presiding over a regressive regime, really a police state, Mubarak has been vigorously supported by the United States. Now do we stand by Mubarak or express our support for the young people of Egypt who are seeking freedom and democracy?
So far, comments by the American Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about the Egyptian protests are indeed lame and disappointing. As reported in the same New York Times article cited above, in a statement after Tuesday’s clashes, she urged restraint but described the Egyptian government as “stable” and “looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people.”
If the United States is to be a champion for freedom and democracy we must stop supporting dictators in return for a certain level of stability. As we are now seeing that stability can evaporate fast, especially when large numbers of well educated, computer and Internet savvy, young people experience high levels of unemployment and have poor prospects for leading a happy and productive life.
The current unrest in North African affairs and the Middle East and with the "Jasmine" type of revolution as seen in Tunisia should be a tremendous opportunity for the United States to actually help freedom and democracy spread across important regions of the world. Unfortunately, our support of brutal dictators while simultaneously voicing our love of freedom and democracy seriously undermines our credibility in pursuing policies that could lead to greater peace in North Africa and the Middle East.
Gerald Greene - Technology may save the world but it is a hard task master. It takes increasing amounts of work to keep up with the latest and greatest.
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