Newsweek Magazine recently ran a cover story in it's February 21st edition, which read "Egypt : How Obama Blew it"
The editor takes great pains to prove that Obama's strategy of wait and watch has left America neither here nor there in its battle to win the moslem world. America, according to him, should have extended a hand to the revolution and done more to edge Mubarak out.
Surprisingly the editor ignores a few of the salient points of American Foreign policy. To start with, (Noam Chomsky would definately concur with this) Americans have always propped up puppet regimes all over the world that serve their vital interests. In the Middle East, the objective was mainly to ensure that the price of oil was stable (or the price that they could buy it from the market was stable).
Indeed the bogey that western-sponsored dictators are any day preferable to hardline fundamentalists, worked for a time and served its purpose. The Obama administration was indeed caught by surprise and on the wrong foot especially when it had to choose sides in the Egyptian Revolution. On one hand, if it threw its weight behind the faceless revolution, other pro-US regimes in the region would have wilted causing more instability.
If it had ignored the protests it would have been taken to task for not practicing what it preaches. A few years ago when Iraq was forcefully overthrown, America had trumpeted it as the dawn of a new age of freedom and democracy for the Arab world. Iraq it seems was not the actual freedom struggle waiting to happen.
Obama and the Secretary of State's carefully calibrated reply reflects the changing contours of American Foreign Policy. Here is a government that could be relied upon to extensively lobby the United Nations into action, but act unilaterally they will certainly not (unlike the previous administration)!!
The case of the Libyan uprising however does make things a lot easier for the US to act. A tyrant with a large sovereign wealth fund who has no qualms about bombing his own people only to secure his throne is an ugly picture for all. The US administration should encounter little opposition when pushing the UN for Action. Howbeit, there will be other spoilsports in the game such as China or Russia who would have their own interests to see to.
This is probably the best shot the US may get to stand with the values it preaches, but they should rope in the UN. Acting unilaterally is indeed the way forward no matter how painstakingly slowly things move. The world community needs to act as a whole, the US can ill afford to be sucked into another war.
First posted on Technorati
Surprisingly the editor ignores a few of the salient points of American Foreign policy. To start with, (Noam Chomsky would definately concur with this) Americans have always propped up puppet regimes all over the world that serve their vital interests. In the Middle East, the objective was mainly to ensure that the price of oil was stable (or the price that they could buy it from the market was stable).
Indeed the bogey that western-sponsored dictators are any day preferable to hardline fundamentalists, worked for a time and served its purpose. The Obama administration was indeed caught by surprise and on the wrong foot especially when it had to choose sides in the Egyptian Revolution. On one hand, if it threw its weight behind the faceless revolution, other pro-US regimes in the region would have wilted causing more instability.
If it had ignored the protests it would have been taken to task for not practicing what it preaches. A few years ago when Iraq was forcefully overthrown, America had trumpeted it as the dawn of a new age of freedom and democracy for the Arab world. Iraq it seems was not the actual freedom struggle waiting to happen.
Obama and the Secretary of State's carefully calibrated reply reflects the changing contours of American Foreign Policy. Here is a government that could be relied upon to extensively lobby the United Nations into action, but act unilaterally they will certainly not (unlike the previous administration)!!
The case of the Libyan uprising however does make things a lot easier for the US to act. A tyrant with a large sovereign wealth fund who has no qualms about bombing his own people only to secure his throne is an ugly picture for all. The US administration should encounter little opposition when pushing the UN for Action. Howbeit, there will be other spoilsports in the game such as China or Russia who would have their own interests to see to.
This is probably the best shot the US may get to stand with the values it preaches, but they should rope in the UN. Acting unilaterally is indeed the way forward no matter how painstakingly slowly things move. The world community needs to act as a whole, the US can ill afford to be sucked into another war.
First posted on Technorati
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