True to their professed ideology, the neoconservatives have come out in support of the call for free elections in Egypt, but, reading between the lines of their commentary, that support is contingent only on the results of such free elections being in line with US and Israeli interests.
William Kristol writes in The Weekly Standard:
“Surely, I would say, it’s time for the U.S. government to take an active role (much but not all of it behind the scenes), working with the army and civil and political organizations to bring about a South Korea/Philippines/Chile-like transition in Egypt, from an American-supported dictatorship to an American-supported and popularly legitimate liberal democracy.”
Hasn’t US government’s support of the Mubarak regime been the cause of the trouble in the first place? What makes Kristol think that the Egyptian opposition want the US to have any part in selecting a new government for them? Supposing the people of Egypt choose a different form of democracy that is not a ‘South Korea/Philippines/Chile-like transition’ to a Western-style liberal democracy. What if the Egyptian people choose in free and fair elections an Islam-dominated government that supports the Palestinian cause.
In the Washington Post yesterday, neoconservative Elliott Abrams wrote:
“We cannot deliver democracy to the Arab states, but we can make our principles and our policies clear. Now is the time to say that the peoples of the Middle East are not "beyond the reach of liberty" and that we will assist any peaceful effort to achieve it - and oppose and condemn efforts to suppress it.”
‘…we can make our principles and our policies clear’!?
Remember, this is the same Elliott Abrams who in 2006 supplied arms to Fatah in the Gaza Strip and West Bank after Hamas won free and fair elections throughout the Palestinian territories.
The neocons aren’t in the slightest bit interested in ‘free and fair democratic elections’. They have proven time and time again to only be supportive of elections that see groups win that will kowtow to US interests. If a popularly elected group come to government that is not in the interests of the US, then the US will resort to every underhand trick it knows to change that government.
Neocon democracy is not real democracy; it’s a pseudo-democracy whereby you are free to select any government you like providing the US and Israel approves of it.
AUSTRALIANS AT WAR
THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY is a compelling factual history of neoconservatism and its influence on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East during the first decade of the twenty-first century. Click on image above for details.
1 comment:
Events in Egypt, following Tunisia, are encouraging.
Down with dictatorships.
Next stop, Tehran!
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