The U.S. versus the new dispensation

Now published in Modern Diplomacy (International Edition)
If the U.S. plays a humane and puristic role with its global partners, this planet earth may see less conflict. If the U.S. throws away its imperialist doctrines -Beveridge, Wilson, Monroe, Bush, etc.-, the world may be a better place.

If the U.S. stops interfering in the Middle East, we may begin to see some peace and calm in that region.
Indeed, the U.S. now has its strategic allies, making it harder to point fingers only at the U.S. for meddling in sovereignty of state matters. But everyone today knows that it is the U.S. that calls the shots.
In fact, some of the strategic allies may even be reluctant partners, for just out of the British National Archives three days ago is the revealing story of the British Government’s (a staunch U.S. ally on almost everything) reluctance to support the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983; but the British Government also was fairly reluctant to acquiesce to U.S. demands on the ousting of Dr. Cheddi Jagan and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) from the 1960s?.

Of course, those were times when the U.S. had mainly the British as its ally; today, the U.S. has more strategic allies on paper, but the allies’ reluctance to meddle may be even more pronounced as evidenced in many allies’ reluctance to send troops to far-away lands or provide funding. There is, however, today a persisting new dispensation resisting the U.S. continued interference in sovereignty of state matters globally, a dispensation that may have had its frail origins in the Cold War.
Today’s Perspectives will use the Arab Spring in Egypt from 2011-2013 to show Egyptian’s resistance to American interference. In many ways, the Arab Spring or the Lotus Revolution in Egypt is a form of this new dispensation against the U.S.

More than two years ago when the Arab Spring emerged, President Hosni Mubarak refused to resign. Instead, he delegated his presidential powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman, an unsavory character who was the Head of Intelligence. The Pro-Democracy Movement in Tahrir Square rejected this move, and the world witnessed the largest protest march ever in Egyptian history. The massive protest was not about ideology; the protest was about securing human dignity and human rights in a free and democratic Egypt, free from external interference, which are still eluding Egyptians today.

Two years ago, President Barack Obama said that Egyptians themselves will have to shape Egypt in producing the reforms that will bring some kind of transition to democracy. However, the Egyptian people were not seeking reforms two years ago and they are not seeking reforms today. What Egyptians wanted then and now as part of the Arab Spring and the Lotus Revolution is a termination of the total repressive state structure. In all of this, people must know that the U.S. supported the repressive Mubarak government for 30 years, in order to guarantee sustainability of U.S. energy security interests, etc. For this reason, for all those 30 years and more, Egypt was a strategic ally of the U.S. in the Middle East.
The U.S. cherishes Egypt as an ally, especially its military. The U.S. provides $1.3 billion of military aid to Egypt annually. So the U.S. was careful not to describe the military ouster of Morsi as a ‘coup’ because American law would not permit the flow of aid to a country whose democratically-elected Head of state is cast out by the military. Indeed, Morsi was democratically elected by the people of Egypt. But Morsi’s closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood pushed the U.S. on the back foot, making for a tenuous relationship between Egypt and the U.S. The U.S. certainly would want to reinstate its control over Egypt through Egypt’s military, and the U.S. showed how it could achieve this goal over the years.

Do not forget that in 1997-78, Egypt alone signed a peace treaty with Israel, which became known as the Camp David Accords. Since then, the U.S. has been providing the second largest foreign aid package to Egypt second only to Israel. In this context, Azikiwe of Global Research (July 9, 2013) noted that the Pentagon and top military Egyptian officers were in confab a few days before the ousting of Morsi.
In addition, Global research pointed out that in the removals of both Mubarak in 2011 and Morsi in 2013, workers, farmers, intellectuals, and other democratic elements were not involved; only the military played a key role in casting out both Mubarak and Morsi. The sole military involvement in these two removals possibly strengthened the U.S.-Egypt alliance and U.S. control over sovereign matters in Egypt. And the use of the military, too, seems to imply the lack of any culture of democracy among the people and, therefore, the need to use the U.S. model of democracy. But Egyptians have had a culture of democracy.

Since 1952, the Presidents of Egypt all shared a military background – Presidents Mohamed Naguib, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak. During this period and perhaps even in earlier times, democracy as we know it never characterized Egypt’s political system. These military rulers never embraced a culture of democracy.
But the people of Egypt continue to be in consort with the culture of democracy not only from the period of military rule in 1952, but since the 1930s. In this sense, there has been a dialectical relationship between the military governments in Egypt and the people of Egypt.
The recent Arab Spring of the Egyptian people’s uprising for democracy is not the first. For instance, there were the Tora Cement factory protest in 2009, food protests in 2008, the Bread riots in 1977, the 1946 protest for political rights, the student protests against the government in the mid-1930s, and there were others.
So it was inappropriate for Mubarak’s last Vice President Suleiman to say that the Egyptian people have no culture of democracy. It may be more appropriate to say that the Mubarak repressive government eroded the growth of democracy for 30 years, which as the old dispensation worked to the U.S. advantage.
Today, the showdown between Morsi Islamic supporters and the military in Egypt continues. Through the Egyptian military, the U.S. is in talks with various parties to the dispute to ensure that the Islamic Brotherhood involvement in the new government is kept minimal. But the U.S. also will have to contend with other Egyptians who want a termination of the total repressive state structure of which the military is a prominent fixture. Clearly, the U.S. faces a new dispensation that resists its imperialist ways.

*** PULL QUOTE: Clearly, the U.S. faces a new dispensation that resists its imperialist ways.

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