Looking back over the six weeks since the army deposed Morsi, it is stunning to note how transparently Washington acted to support the Egyptian generals. Susan Rice, President Obama’s national security advisor, serves as point person on Egypt’s subversion of democracy, and she does her work in broad daylight, more or less. It was Rice who called the generals just before the July 3 coup to advise that they could move against Morsi without consequence. It was Rice who then called Morsi’s people to tell them, “You’re over. The generals are coming.” Now there is a skilled diplomat, “an outspoken defender of human rights and advocate of American intervention to prevent abuses,” as the New York Times ridiculously put it. Got that? It is possible now to understand the Obama White House’s policy in its fullness. Despite large servings of happy talk, this administration was never keen on the Arab Spring because it was not (and is not) capable of accepting democratic government in nations with Islamic majorities. It is philosophically and ideologically unprepared for non-Western forms of legitimate representation. Egyptians have just become the latest witnesses to this. The public squares of Cairo this past week are a frightening portent. More pressing has been Israel’s intolerance of an Islamic party — Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood — in power next door. It is apparent, if not quite evident, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted Morsi’s head before he agreed to any talks with the Palestinians. He assented to new talks within days of the Egyptian coup, it is worth noting. The dreaded question here is whether U.S. support for Israel effectively precludes political advances in the Arab world. One fears the answer, but it is vital now to pose the problem. How could a policy as cynical as this (and as troubling in its implications) be set in motion before the eyes of right-thinking Americans? We come to the performance of our media. “Supine” is too kind a term for their eager participation in official Washington’s misrepresentations. Maybe it was different during all those Cold War coups the U.S. sponsored, but I do not think so. Administrations depend on the decay of distinctions between government and the press, preferring a cooperation that sometimes seems almost Soviet. In the Egypt case, we are faced with a formidable wall of untruths. The media’s complicity in erecting it is a contemptible dereliction.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 15:01:53 +0000
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