I was walking across campus that October afternoon when I heard the news. I rushed to the Journalism Department where the Associated Press Teletype was clattering in its insulated booth. Other J-students and professors were gathered around, tearing off the reports as they came in and silently passing them around.
Anwar Sadat was dead, assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists in the Egyptian Army. His vice president, a man I’d never heard of named Hosni Mubarak, was Egypt’s new president.
That was long ago and Mr. Mubarak is still around. In one sense, that’s none of my business. I’m not an Egyptian, although it’s clear Egyptians haven’t wanted Mr. Mubarak around for a long time. So why is he still there?
For one thing, he rules in a part of the world where democracy is lightly regarded. Strong men take power and hold it as long as they can. A large part of Mr. Mubarak’s power-holding, however, has relied on the support of the United States, under the last five presidential administrations.
The US gives Egypt around $2 billion in annually, in large part because Mr. Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1978, in part because Mr. Mubarak has continued Egypt’s role of peaceful trading partner with Israel and bastion of Middle East peace, even though that’s been one reason for his domestic unpopularity.
It’s only one reason; the rest are pretty run-of-the-mill. Corruption, lack of democracy, growing economic inequality – I can’t say it all makes sense in the strictly logical meaning of the word, but it’s usual, we’ve seen it before and we’ve come to accept it.
What’s puzzling to me is that we have an 82-year-old dictator with cancer, who until last week had never named a vice president because he wanted to keep his flunkies competing against each other, then suddenly there’s revolution in the streets and the US government is paralyzed into mute inaction.
Why? Did we think a cancer-stricken octogenarian was just going to go on forever? I mean, there’s Fidel, but he’s sui generis.
So if Mr. Mubarak was not expected to live forever and clearly was reluctant to name a successor, why we did not use our leverage while we could to nudge him a bit. “Hey, Hosni, maybe would should, y’know, feed your people. Forget about naming your son as successor. You’re not a pharaoh. Lighten up a bit on the corruption by your police forces and political elite. It might save you – and us – a world of headaches with the Islamic fundamentalists.”
If not that, why not make friends with a legitimate Egyptian democrat, so when Mr. Mubarak’s tawdry reign comes to an end, we can have an ally ready to build a more benevolent nation, rather than fight a rearguard action against the Muslim Brotherhood.
Omar Suleiman, who was named vice president last week, has been accused by at least one DC journalist of wrecking the chances of a Palestinian unity government at Washington’s behest.
So meet the new boss, same as the old boss and unacceptable to the crowds in Tahrir Square, but not in Foggy Bottom. But not to worry, the State Department is sending Frank Wisner, veteran of AIG and Enron and noted second-generation spook (his dad took out Iranian democrat Mohammed Mossadegh in ’53). That’ll make everyone happy, no doubt.
This is not all Barack Obama’s fault – he was on also on a college campus when Mr. Sadat was killed, but he’s the guy who sent Mr. Wisner and who waited until Tuesday evening to say – tepidly – that it’s time for Mr. Mubarak to move along. Since then, nothing. This is the lesson of history the government of the United States – whether run by Democrats or Republicans – has failed to learn. The colonial era is over. We don’t call the shots anymore. We can’t just wave wands or CIAs and make the world the way we want it. (We never could, really.) That doesn’t mean things can’t work out to our advantage, but we can’t get there by force and subversion. We have to think ahead, consider tomorrow’s consequences of today’s actions – or inactions. We have to be open and honest and try – for once, please – to live up to the ideals of our founding documents.
What Were We Thinking?
I was walking across campus that October afternoon when I heard the news. I rushed to the Journalism Department where the Associated Press Teletype was clattering in its insulated booth. Other J-students and professors were gathered around, tearing off the reports as they came in and silently passing them around.
Anwar Sadat was dead, assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists in the Egyptian Army. His vice president, a man I’d never heard of named Hosni Mubarak, was Egypt’s new president.
That was long ago and Mr. Mubarak is still around. In one sense, that’s none of my business. I’m not an Egyptian, although it’s clear Egyptians haven’t wanted Mr. Mubarak around for a long time. So why is he still there?
For one thing, he rules in a part of the world where democracy is lightly regarded. Strong men take power and hold it as long as they can. A large part of Mr. Mubarak’s power-holding, however, has relied on the support of the United States, under the last five presidential administrations.
The US gives Egypt around $2 billion in annually, in large part because Mr. Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1978, in part because Mr. Mubarak has continued Egypt’s role of peaceful trading partner with Israel and bastion of Middle East peace, even though that’s been one reason for his domestic unpopularity.
It’s only one reason; the rest are pretty run-of-the-mill. Corruption, lack of democracy, growing economic inequality – I can’t say it all makes sense in the strictly logical meaning of the word, but it’s usual, we’ve seen it before and we’ve come to accept it.
What’s puzzling to me is that we have an 82-year-old dictator with cancer, who until last week had never named a vice president because he wanted to keep his flunkies competing against each other, then suddenly there’s revolution in the streets and the US government is paralyzed into mute inaction.
Why? Did we think a cancer-stricken octogenarian was just going to go on forever? I mean, there’s Fidel, but he’s sui generis.
So if Mr. Mubarak was not expected to live forever and clearly was reluctant to name a successor, why we did not use our leverage while we could to nudge him a bit. “Hey, Hosni, maybe would should, y’know, feed your people. Forget about naming your son as successor. You’re not a pharaoh. Lighten up a bit on the corruption by your police forces and political elite. It might save you – and us – a world of headaches with the Islamic fundamentalists.”
If not that, why not make friends with a legitimate Egyptian democrat, so when Mr. Mubarak’s tawdry reign comes to an end, we can have an ally ready to build a more benevolent nation, rather than fight a rearguard action against the Muslim Brotherhood.
Omar Suleiman, who was named vice president last week, has been accused by at least one DC journalist of wrecking the chances of a Palestinian unity government at Washington’s behest.
So meet the new boss, same as the old boss and unacceptable to the crowds in Tahrir Square, but not in Foggy Bottom. But not to worry, the State Department is sending Frank Wisner, veteran of AIG and Enron and noted second-generation spook (his dad took out Iranian democrat Mohammed Mossadegh in ’53). That’ll make everyone happy, no doubt.
This is not all Barack Obama’s fault – he was on also on a college campus when Mr. Sadat was killed, but he’s the guy who sent Mr. Wisner and who waited until Tuesday evening to say – tepidly – that it’s time for Mr. Mubarak to move along. Since then, nothing. This is the lesson of history the government of the United States – whether run by Democrats or Republicans – has failed to learn. The colonial era is over. We don’t call the shots anymore. We can’t just wave wands or CIAs and make the world the way we want it. (We never could, really.) That doesn’t mean things can’t work out to our advantage, but we can’t get there by force and subversion. We have to think ahead, consider tomorrow’s consequences of today’s actions – or inactions. We have to be open and honest and try – for once, please – to live up to the ideals of our founding documents.
© Mark Floegel, 2011