By Kenneth J. Theisen 
Recent turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern nations illustrates, among other things, the seemingly bottomless well of hypocrisy the U.S. government draws on. U.S. officials, including the President and the Secretary of State, have made statements of “concern” about the ongoing struggles in the region in recent days.
What they have failed to mention is the fact that for decades the U.S. has propped up, armed and dominated the authoritarian governments that are now be challenged by the masses in these nations. The U.S. is now trying to preserve its strategic interests in the region, while pretending to be concerned about the people in the region. We must demand that the U.S. government get its bloody hands off the region, while exposing its past and current roles.
On January 28, 2001 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the following to the media:
“We are deeply concerned about the use of violence by Egyptian police and security forces against protesters and we call on the Egyptian government to do everything in its power to restrain the security forces. At the same time, protesters should also refrain from violence and express themselves peacefully.
As we have repeatedly said, we support the universal human rights of the Egyptian people, including the right to freedom of expression, of association and of assembly. We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests and to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications.”
She failed to mention that the Egyptian government which is shooting its own people has received more than $30 billion in aid from the U.S. government since 1975. The majority of this aid has been military aid. As of the writing of this article, the Egyptian government has just called out it military forces to assist the police forces to suppress the resistance of the Egyptian people. While the level of violence now being used by the Egyptian government is now higher than previously used, the fact that the Egyptian government has been using violence, torture, imprisonment, etc. to maintain its dictatorship is nothing new. The billions of dollars of U.S. aid have been used to prop up the Egyptian government.
Throughout the region the U.S. has provided tens of billions of dollars of military aid to various governments to suppress the Arab and other people in the region. This includes aid and sales of U.S. weapons to the governments of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, etc. This aid and these arms sales have allowed these reactionary governments to maintain their suppression of their own people, and in the case of Israel to attack Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, etc.
The crimes of the Egyptian government are well known to the American government. The required annual State Department reports for decades have detailed the abuse of human rights by the Egyptian government. While U.S. officials mouths words calling for restraint or curtailment of abuse, the deeds of the U.S. government allow the abuse to be continued. Just one example is the fact the Egypt cooperated with Israel to maintain the blockade of Gaza resulting in turning Gaza into the largest prison in the world. For many years Egypt has been the second largest recipient of U.S. aid. Israel has been number one. In 2009 Egypt received $1.3 billion in direct U.S. military aid.
According to Amnesty International’s 2010 report, “Torture and other ill-treatment remained widespread in police cells, security police detention centers and prisons, and in most cases were committed with impunity.” But U.S. aid and support of the U.S. government has been consistent for Egypt for decades. During these decades elections have been nothing but electoral farces. None of this has resulted in any real action by U.S. leaders that pretend to be concerned for the Egyptian people.
The recent crisis in the area though does cause major concern within the U.S. ruling class. This concern is not because U.S. leaders give a damn about the people. But the crisis could impair U.S. domination in the region.
If the authoritarian governments like Egypt and Tunisia are overthrown, the successor governments may or may not be willing to work in the interests of the U.S. imperialists. This is why U.S. leaders are concerned. When the Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1979, the present Islamic fundamentalists that run and ruin Iran came to power. Since then the U.S. has tried to either co-opt of overthrow this regime because at time it has opposed U.S. imperialist interests.
In Egypt the most organized opposition forces are those related to the so-called Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic fundamentalist group. In many of the other nations, the Islamic fundamentalists are among the most organized political groups as well. The U.S. fears that these groups may come to power and pose a challenge to U.S. hegemony. Because of this the U.S. is now actively trying to prop up the Egyptian government while at the same time probably trying to hedge it bets if the opposition manages to overthrow the government.
(While it is not the purpose of this article to expose the past U.S. support for Islamic fundamentalists, readers should be aware that the U.S. has occasionally supported them against more progressive forces in the region over the last several decades.)
It is not in the interests of the people of Egypt to have the U.S. supported Mubarak government to maintain power, nor is it in their interest to have Islamic fundamentalists come to power. Neither of these reactionary forces have the interests of the masses of people in mind.
We do not know the full extent of U.S. government intervention at this time. But we can be assured that what our government is doing is not in the interest of the people of Egypt or the people of the world.
What we do know is not good. Senior Egyptian military officials were in the Pentagon on January 28th. Officially they’re attending the annual U.S.-Egypt Military Cooperation Committee to discuss U.S.-Egyptian military training, security assistance and defense industrial cooperation. These meetings have been occurring for 27 years as U.S. support for the Mubarak government has been consistent nearly from the start of the regime which has been in power for 30 years.
One of the scarier facts is that the United States and Egypt regularly participate in combined military exercises, including deployments of U.S. troops to Egypt. Could such a deployment be a topic of the current meeting between our war leaders and their counterparts in Egypt? Is the fact that the Egyptian military is now on the streets at the same time some of its leaders are at the Pentagon a coincidence?
While we may not know all U.S. actions at this time, we must do what we can to expose U.S. actions and hypocrisy, while also mobilizing people to repudiate and oppose these moves. We must also do what we can to support the real interests of the Egyptian people to eliminate all forms of repression whether from U.S. imperialist supported government or other forms of reaction.
World Can’t Wait will continue to follow and report on events in the Middle East and the action of the U.S. government there.
Police state, fascist amerika is fearful of losing its Egypt puppet! The revolucion will spread across the planet !