Israel Matzav

Smart Power: More of what Obama doesn't get about the Middle East

Barry Rubin has some withering criticism of how President Obama has handled the Egyptian crisis until now and about the wrong lessons it is learning from the current situation.

The president of the United States leaped into an issue he didn’t understand, put forward a bad policy, showed he didn’t comprehend the most basic principles of statecraft and diplomacy, publicly celebrated as if he were making a campaign speech projected events in Egypt that didn’t happen, and then admitted that he had no idea what was going on.

Even some of his biggest left-wing fans had to admit this was a debacle. "The mystique of America's superpower status has been shattered," said Steve Clemons, of the New America Foundation.

Well, who is shattering it? Not the demonstrators; not Mubarak. That catastrophe can only be traced to one man.

From the Middle East itself, the reviews are indeed shattering. The Saudis, just about the most cautious and conservative government there is in the world, publicly rebuked President Obama on his strategy. This is not primarily an issue concerning Israel. It’s an issue affecting anyone in the Middle East who opposes revolutionary Islamism and looks to the United States as a protector.

Yet what seems to be the administration's immediate response? Not to step back but to push harder on Egypt's government to get rid of Mubarak and turn over power to the opposition faster. "The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient," Obama said.

Meaningful for whom? Sufficient for whom? As for "immediate," that's an American conception. "Immediate" isn't always good. Obama's reaction to the events in Egypt was "immediate," that is based on no good information, study, or planning.

Obama has no idea what he is really saying: The Egyptian government better jump to appease the demonstrators or else! Is there no concept in the White House of regional stability, the battle against revolutionary Islamism, the dangers of anarchy, or the U.S. national interest? Apparently not.

That's the message Mubarak was trying to convey in his last great public act: I am an Arab warrior not a community organizer.

In other words, the U.S. government has drawn a lesson that is the exact opposite from the one they should be taking. Obama is in danger of becoming Captain Abab, with not just Mubarak but the entire Egyptian government and army cast in the role of the white whale. One almost feels that this is going to end with President Obama going to Tahrir Square to join the demonstrators.

But why hasn't anyone thought about comparing Obama's growing obssession with Mubarak to the battle between the two Bush presidents and Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq? It's worth thinking about. Saddam attacked two of his neighbors, supported terrorism, committed mass murder among his citizens, and tried to destroy U.S. interests. Mubarak has never attacked anyone, fights terrorism, and worked cooperatively with U.S. interests.

As Jon Alterman, a Middle East specialist who supports Obama put it: "Egyptians enjoyed greater freedom of speech than many other Arabs, and Egypt's economy was nurturing an increasingly robust private sector....[In the Freedom House survey] Egypt ranked as `partly free,' ahead of every Arab country except Kuwait and Lebanon. In the last decade, Egypt's stolid, dowdy, and state-owned press began giving way to satellite television and the Internet, and an array of independent publications."

Obviously, Mubarak's regime was a dictatorship. People were arrested and tortured and censored. No doubt. But there is a question of degree. The worst dictatorships nowadays are all anti-American and are trying to spread their influence, often through violence. And it's no accident that the "softer" dictatorships (like the shah and Mubarak) are more vulnerable from within than the all-out, flatten-anyone-who-opens-their-mouth authoritarian states like Saddam's Iraq or Ahmadinejad's Iran.

And yet the sole apparent goal of U.S. policy today is the overthrow of not just Mubarak but of the entire Egyptian regime. Or, in other words, for the first time the United States and al-Qaida are on the same side. This is true at a time when the same U.S. government is nicely engaging Syria which combines torture with support for terrorism and killing Americans in Iraq.

Read the whole thing. The end, in particular, is devastating.

Labels: Barack Obama, Egyptian regime change, Hosni Mubarak, smart power

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:39 PM