Posted on 02/28/2005 5:10:34 AM PST by Brilliant
The latest Arab dictatorship to bow to the lesson of last month's Iraq elections is Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak asked parliament on Saturday to amend the Constitution to allow for the first direct, multiparty presidential election in its history.
Genuine democracy will be in the details, and the U.S. State Department has reacted cautiously. But the big news is that Mr. Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since 1981 and with increasingly Pharaoh-like tendencies, felt obliged to move. His announcement followed last week's cancellation by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of a trip to Cairo as a way to protest the imprisonment of Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour. Egypt also receives billions of dollars of U.S. aid each year -- money that has become increasingly controversial in Congress as Mr. Mubarak has seemed to be preparing his son, Gamal, to be his successor.
Mr. Mubarak has long deflected U.S. pressure for political liberalization by claiming that the only alternative to his rule is Islamic radicalism. But September 11 taught us that Mr. Mubarak's dictatorship (like Saudi Arabia's) also incubates Islamic terror. To deflect any criticism of his own rule, he is silent about the anti-American venom spread in the Egyptian media and mosques. This is the Faustian bargain that Brent Scowcroft, Zbigniew Brzezinski and other "realist" U.S. Middle Eastern strategists want Americans to tolerate.
President Bush's policy of promoting freedom in the Middle East is intended to break up this poisonous status quo. .. With each passing week, the Iraq elections look more and more like a historic watershed that will change the politics of the entire Middle East.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Understands it. Talks about it. Promotes it.
Great President!
Exactly. Why are we paying Egypt $2 billion a year to train children to hate Jews and Americans? Egypt continues to be the breeding ground of "Arab nationalism," a poisonous mixture of Islamism and Communism. Egypt was the inspirational source for the Baathists and the Palestinians, and little or nothing has been done to stop that process.
Who was the real Realist in dealing with the Soviet Union, Henry Kissinger or Ronald Reagan?
Maybe we should also ask Congress to strip them of at least 1 billion in aid - what on earth are we sending that kind of money to Egypt for in the first place?
Dicatorial regimes in the Middle East don't suppress Islamic extremism, they inadvertently foster it. The dictators suppress any opposing secular political parties, so the only organized outlet for dissent becomes the mosques.
We are sending that kind of money because of the agreement Carter made between Egypt, Israel and Jordan. However, it has financed hatred against the US ever since and should be seriously rethought.
I would like someone to show me where in the world aid has fostered a warm feeling towards the USA.
Instead, what I see is one snake pit after another, hating America yet expecting our $$$.
I know I'm just a simple-minded Texan but . . . so what if EVERY Middle Eastern country being currently ruled by Potentates or Dictators turn into Islamic Fascist states? Wouldn't this simply make our enemies more identifiable?
Terrorist murderers now hide in Syria and Egypt and Iran and . . . so on. And they're protected under this "supposed" ALLY-VEIL nonsense the professional Diplo-Wackos have awarded their governments.
If their government's "stated" objective was to destroy the U.S. . . . as they've ALL vowed to destroy Israel . . . then we wouldn't have to play the "word" games we do now. We could just clean house. Nice, neat, simple.
I say every Middle Eastern country should have FAIR elections and those stupid enough to elect Mullahs or Ayatollahs or whatever to lead them are welcome to do so . . . then we could simply make a priority list.
With "friends" like Egypt and Saudi Arabia . . .
Democracy may not solve the problem, but it teaches these guys a lesson. We have more weapons than just bombs and bullets. All we have to do is stir their politics a little, and their own people will throw them out. With the threat of that hanging over their heads, I suspect they will think twice about making trouble for us.
Bit by bit. You can't solve all the world's problems with one fell swoop. But terrorists are not going to be able to hide in a democracy any more easily than they can in a dictatorship.
For sure it wasn't Zbig.
Wasn't Zbig the Carter "realpolitik" hotshot who screwed up Iran in the late 70's?
Where, pray tell, do you propose to get the troops and treasure to "clean house" in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and every other country that would without doubt elect Islamic fundamentalists if given the chance?
Our military is spread thin with just Iraq and Afghanistan. Now you want to add 5 more nations to the building list?
You've got it backwards. It was precisely Carter's rejection of realpolitik that lead to the downfall of Iran. The only way to keep the Soviet-backed Islamists down in Iran was to brutally suppress them. Carter preassured the Shah to stop, to release them from their prisons, to stop torturing them, to stop censuring their vile propaganda, and the result was the Islamic revolution.
Now Bush's result of pushing democracy in Iraq is going to be another Shiite Islamic state. Oh yes, abandoning realism is such a grand strategy.
If the people are sympathetic to the terrorists, then it's much easier for them to hide in a democracy.
That is preciesly why we should not be promoting democracy in countries where the populace is sympatheic to our enemies. Dictators are easier to buy than elected leaders.
Thank God Pakistan is a dictatorship.
First of all, these countries aren't going to go Democratic over night . . . but even if they did and if fundamentalists gained control of them, the very second ANY of these countries declared war on us -- which is what they'd be doing if their "stated" objective was to destroy us -- there wouldn't be ANY problem filling the ranks of our military. I've been one of the know-it-alls who were down on this generation's youngsters. I called them "the Me, Me, Me, Generation."
I was wrong.
They're every bit as tough and proud as my father's World War II Generation. It took 9-11 for me to see that. Hell, maybe it took 9-11 for THEM to see that and to step up . . . BUT STEP UP THEY DID!
They'll be there when we need them.
9-11 also woke up the Silent Majority of the populace. We've always known the ONLY way to combat evil was to take it head-on . . . but we've never had the avenues to have our voices heard in the past. The Cronkites and Rathers and the other MSM presstitutes muted our voices and opinions. They can't do that any longer.
If Osama bin Laden, Jr. is elected President of Saudi Arabia . . . he will only serve a week at the most. Americans are no longer willing to have bulls-eyes on our backs . . . hence, our government is no longer willing to let Americans be hurt or killed with impunity. If it takes 100,000 soldiers or 1,000,000 soldiers . . . they'll be there when they're called on.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.