During the Egyptian revolution two years ago, the Obama administration alienated Egyptians by standing with Hosni Mubarak until it was clear that he was finished. Vice President Biden declared Mubarak was not a dictator. U.S. envoy Frank Wisner declared that Mubarak “must stay in office” to oversee democratic changes. Hillary Clinton endorsed a “transition process” that would have allowed Mubarak to remain in power for many months. Soon, The Post reported, protesters in Tahrir Square were “openly denouncing the United States for supporting President Hosni Mubarak.” Demonstrators carried signs that declared “Shame on you Obama!” and showed Mubarak depicted as President Obama in Obama’s iconic “hope” image — with a caption that read “No You Can’t.”
When Mubarak finally fell and Mohamed Morsi came into power, the Obama administration seamlessly got out of bed with one Egyptian pharaoh and into bed with another. Obama looked the other way as Morsi sidelined the judiciary, amassed authoritarian powers, sidled up to Iran and Hamas, prayed publicly for the destruction of the Jews and enforced Islamist dictats.
Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood had been busy turning Egypt into a Sunni version of Iran, with a new constitution giving Brotherhood clerics a leading role in government and religiously-rigged elections. You may choose from Brotherhood Candidate A or Brotherhood Candidate B. They didn’t get away with it because the educated urbanites saw what was coming, and the man on the street was tired of the economic mismanagement.
The Obama Administration however seemed to be just fine with the Muslim Brotherhood and their long-term goal of re-establishing the Caliphate, and now the Administration seems to be just fine with every faction in Egypt hating, resenting, or dismissing us. But surely a corrupt military dictatorship is preferable to a corrupt Islamist dictatorship. Haven’t we learned at least that much about the Middle East?
Or is there something else going on here?
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