Monday, February 7, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Goebbels said if you repeat a lie often enough, people eventually come to believe it. That’s what Mubarak and Suleiman are doing in Egypt, claiming the protesters’ demands are being met. Suleiman meets with representatives of a few small opposition parties that Mubarak allows to exist, two members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and other “prominent Egyptians” (but not ElBaradei, the designated negotiator of the leaders of the protest movement), and announces a “consensus” has been reached on the path to reform, and Washington instantly embraces this as truth in spite of all evidence to the contrary: the Muslim Brotherhood objected, the protesters objected, ElBaradei objected. But no matter, Washington believes what it wants to believe and ignores Mubarak’s 30-year history and the protest movement. There is no consensus and there is no movement toward reform – Mubarak’s still president, his rubber-stamp parliament has not been dissolved, the Emergency Law has not been repealed, nothing has changed. Pretty clear, Mr. President, that you’ve sold out the protesters for an illusion of “security” and “stability,” neither of which will happen until Mubarak (and Suleiman) leave. You’ve been a disappointment time and again but this one really takes the cake. This is a blatant sellout of the Egyptian people. It’s all about America’s power and hegemony in the Middle East isn’t it, Mr. President? All about oil and access to oil. Just like in the 50s, the 70s, the 90s, the way it’s always been. Wisner, Clinton, Biden, all say Mubarak must stay to “lead Egypt through a transition period of reforms.” Hello! Mr. President? Ain’t gonna happen. Despots do not institute democratic reforms. What role could he possibly play? But that’s the line and you’re sticking with it. Clinton’s press conference yesterday took diplomatic double-speak to a new level. “Mubarak’s future is up to the Egyptian people” but she ignores the millions who call for his immediate departure; she warned of “rushing headlong into a vote” and ignores the protesters’ proposal that elections not take place until a new Constitution is written. I could go on, but I won’t waste time. This is a corollary to lies being repeated often enough – if you ignore the opposition (except those you choose to recognize) they’ll eventually disappear. This same old approach to the Middle East is another stain on our long and sordid political history there. It shames you, it shames America, it shames all of us.