Washington Yawns As Egypt’s Independent Press Is Attacked
Since the United States has abandoned its democracy-promotion strategy in the Middle East, things have gone to hell. Arab monarchies have cracked down hard on opposition groups, press has been stifled, and elections have been blatantly rigged. This is particularly evident in Egypt, where the Mubarak monarchy is literally trying to eviscerate all opposition. Besides the jailing and harassment of numerous anti-government activists, the independent press has also taken a beating in recent days:
Ibrahim Eissa, one of the most courageous independent journalists in Egypt, has just been sentenced to a year in prison on charges that his newspaper al-Dustour published false and malicious rumours about the death of Hosni Mubarak, and also of insulting Mubarak and his son Gamal. Three other editors of independent weeeklies [w]ere also sent to jail: Adel Hamouda, Wail al-Ibrashi, and Abd al-Halim Qandil. This is nothing short of a massacre of Egypt’s independent press. (Marc Lynch)
The Egyptian monarchy is getting away with this, in part, because the Bush administration isn’t speaking out against this latest crackdown. There has been barely a word of protest from either the American Embassy in Cairo, the State Department, or the White House. Indeed, pardon my cynicism, but these days in Washington, no one seems to care much about human rights or democracy in the Arab world. Ah, the triumph of realpolitik…now I remember.
Thankfully, in an op-ed in The Washington Post, democracy-guru Thomas Carothers sensibly explains the need to abandon such cold-hearted realism and he lays out how the US can get its Middle East policy back on track.
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7 Responses to “Washington Yawns As Egypt’s Independent Press Is Attacked”
Denial, not just a river in Egypt.
“The Egyptian monarchy is getting away with this, in large part, because the Bush administration isn’t speaking out against this latest crackdown.”
Lol oh really? What makes you think Bush can stop this by telling them how to run their country? And what about the rest of the world? Nope, it’s largely our fault. I mean Bush’s, that the Egyptian gov’t is a virtual dictatorship.
Sam – Perhaps “in large part” is not entirely fair. I’ve therefore changed the wording slightly.
That being said, I think it’s clear that the US wields an incredible amount of influence over Egypt’s foreign and domestic policies (much more so than other countries.) The Mubarak regime, particularly in 2004-5, has shown itself highly susceptible to American pressure. A little diplomatic prodding, at the very least, would go a long way in this case.
Well we do give them about $3billion a year as part of the Camp David Accords, which gives us some influence. But still, we are talking about a ME nation and frankly this kind of thing is just par for the course over there. Also, despite your argument having some merit I just feel tired about this assumption that every problem in the world is ours to hop to to fix. Hence my response was a bit more sarcastic than it should have been.
Sam, I was going to mention those 3 billion reasons too!
But seriously, I’d have no problem with the US withholding the aide.
In fact, I’d like to see the 6 billion annually given to Israel and Egypt diverted to other countries or to our own Treasury.
Israel doesn’t need it, and Egypt doesn’t seem to be deserving.
But without our bribes how would there be peace between Israel and Egypt?
Are you expecting to see a reduction in the misconduct of Ahmedinejad or Chavez any time, given that Bush and others in his administration have spoken out against their misconduct often (angering defenders of these two people among harder-core leftists in the process)?
So far, we have seen no reduction in their misconduct.