Michael Totten On Egypt
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism, The World
Things aren’t looking so good to the liberal-hawk blogger.
I am not at all optimistic about Egypt’s future in the medium term. I have yet to meet a single Egyptian who is. Their pessimism isn’t merely contagious…it’s convincing. The ruling party, supposedly America’s “ally,� is hideously corrupt to the core. It is not ideological, just venal, well-armed, and criminal. Liberalism (broadly defined) barely exists here. The democratic opposition parties have been oppressed so long by the state they have no more hope of taking power than the Green Party has in the United States. The Muslim Brotherhood is by far the most potent political force in the country, and millions of people who under better conditions would have little or nothing to do with them are supporting them.At least people are willing and able to talk to me freely and openly in public. This is the one bit of good news out of Egypt right now, and it’s a recent development. This is not Libya here, and it is not Syria.
And this is what the US must do sometimes…support a government because they’re better than the alternative. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do this. Cooperation with semi-friendly countries is vital. But I can’t help but thinking…if you dance with the devil, what does that make you?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 7th, 2005 and is filed under Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism, The World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
