I am writing to express my views as an American citizen who has lived off and on in Egypt since 1984, and who was lucky to be a witness of this incredible moment.
I am aware that, depending on geopolitical and economic interest, there are many truths that vary . I suppose I am not unique in the belief that my opinion is the best one. But these are my thoughts in the wake of what some are calling “The Dignity Revolution.”
When we as a nation embrace dictators such as Hosni Mubarak, Saddam Hussein, and others in this oil-producing region, we do so for purely selfish reasons. We feel the need to protect the flow of oil and the interests of our U.S. private businesses, such as Halliburton, British Petroleum (formerly Amoco), Bechtel. We are a capitalist country that practices democracy.
We also have moved from being a purported neutral party in the uneasy truce between Israel and Egypt, to a loyal friend of Israel who will always put that country's security above all else. This has been proven through several administrations, including President Obama's, most recently by his refusing to take a tough stance on settlements in Palestinian territory.
It is our right as a country to decide which countries we wish to befriend, and to look after our political and economic interests. It becomes dirty, I believe, when we talk about freedom, democracy, and basic human rights as American values that we hold dear, but then deny that other people should also enjoy them.
We have been denying those rights, including the right to choose to be a religious state (as Israel is), to countries that happen to have natural resources that we want for ourselves.
We seem to suffer from a series of shortsighted foreign-policy moves that ultimately backfire, such as choosing to align ourselves with Osama bin Laden when we thought we could win in Afghanistan, and Saddam Hussein when Iraq waged war on Iran. The continual support of the suppression of millions of people in oil-rich countries brought about the hatred that gave birth to terrorism. Yet our leaders say that terrorists “hate our freedom.” How ironic!
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Over the past few weeks, we have seen this beautiful, mainly secular Egyptian society come together to ask in a peaceful fashion for freedom. I have gotten to know the brave young warriors whose main weapon was the oft-repeated “peaceful, peaceful” throughout the weeks of coming together.
Yet, until it became inevitable that Mubarak had to be removed from power, it seemed the best that the U.S. government could do was say that stability is more important than human rights.
Whose stability? Whom does that stability benefit? When the demonstrations became too large for the government to suppress, officials staged the most ridiculous display of murderous stupidity that I have witnessed in my lifetime. The blatant show of force included first removing all 1.7 million police from the streets of Cairo, and then opening the prisons, both of which led to widespread chaos and fear.
But in a moving display of solidarity, Egyptians from all walks of life went out into the streets to protect their property and one another. They cleaned the streets and they reclaimed order.
The government's response was to send their thugs into the crowds, first with leftover campaign signs from the last fake election, then - to the world's amazement and horror - medieval warriors on horseback and camelback to beat the peaceful protesters.
Both Mubarak and his spy chief (and close friend to the U.S. and Israel) Omar Suleiman talked of “foreign elements” who had their own agendas and whom they blamed for inciting unrest. They began a two-day siege on all journalists and left it to their thugs to deal with foreigners.
I was stopped six times on my way to Tahrir Square, subjected to these thugs surrounding our car, sticking their heads in, pulling everything out of the trunk, asking questions, examining documents, generally terrorizing us. It was necessary for me to convince them that I wasn't a reporter or a foreign “infiltrator,” but a longtime resident of Cairo.
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Despite Mubarak's very best efforts to suppress the media, the world saw and heard enough to shame the government. The next day, the press was welcome on the streets, all checkpoints were removed, and the street thugs were nowhere to be seen.
But the damage had already been done. The thuggery and corruption of the Mubarak regime was the “stability” that the citizens of Egypt were asked to embrace in order to save the dignity of the man who has stolen as much as $70 billion from his country.
It is no wonder that a blogger recently wrote, “Dear Iran, Israel, and U.S.A.: Please F*#@ off. Do not hijack our revolution. Cordially, Egypt.”
Will we ever understand that a country can be free and friendly at the same time? Will we ever admit that our interests have driven foreign policy for too long and that the wisest course for all free nations to take is the path that encourages human rights for everybody?
Doing these two things is the way to create real allies.