Not even American propaganda could whitewash the fact that the U.S. has imposed Hosni Mubarak's regime on The Egyptian People for decades. His government is not merely our ally but one of our closest client regimes. We prop him up, pay for his tools of repression, and have kept him safe for 30 years from exactly this type of popular uprising -- all in exchange for his (a) abducting, detaining and torturing whom we want, (b) acting favorably toward Israel, and (c) bringing stability to the Suez Canal.Quote from: The Egyptian Mirror By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, February 07, 2011
Gibbs recent statements about Egypt illustrates American hypocrisy in his criticisms of the Mubarak Brutal anti-Democratic Regime since it was the US that did all that it could to prop up Mubarak's Regime over the last 30 years. So it is a bit much of stretch for the US and Obama to now claim the moral high ground.
So it only took 30 years for America to admit it was wrong to keep this regime in power in Egypt.
Hillary Clinton and others still unrepentant in their support of Mubarak up til the last 15 days or so.
They disingenuously act as if they didn't know how the Egyptian people hated the Mubarak regime.
They claim the US government was somehow deceived and played by Hosni Mubarak.
This in the case of the Whitehouse is just more phony posturing and paying lip-service to democracy and human rights.
If Obama and company are serious in their claims about democracy and human rights then they should send similar blunt requests to its other "Client States" such as Algeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia , Pakistan , Morocco, Jordan Libya, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Kuwit , Oman, Uzbekistan etc.
The Egyptian people like the citizens of other US client states should realize America is not their friend and will only "Do the Right Thing" when enough pressure is put on the United States and even then they are not to be trusted sine American administrations over and over have claimed they are a law unto themselves and that international agreements, treaties, UN Resolutions etc. have no hold over America.
US foreign policy has usually been that of promoting America's interest and not the interest of the citizens of other nations.
NEED TO KNOW | In Perspective: Jon Meacham on the crisis in Egypt | PBS
Feb. 8, 2011.
Scenes from Egypt's Parliament: Closed for Business
Two protesters scale the main gate at Egypt's parliament building on Tuesday night, erecting a sign that says: "Sorry.. Closed until the downfall of the regime." Hundreds of protesters began gathering at the parliament building as a result of the overflow crowd in central Cairo's Tahrir Square, and to expand the reach of the demonstrations.
US aid of 2 billion or so a year since 1979 Has made Mubarak and his family and friends quite wealthy.
It is estimated that Mubarak and his family are worth over $40 billion.
So it is no wonder that Hillary Clinton considers Mubarak and his family as personal friends.
"Birds of a feather" and all that .
So if Mubarak not so rich and less corrupt and put his people first before himself or before America's interest Hillary and Obama might call him a loser for not taking advantage of the massive bribes - baksheesh the USA has given him.
Cenk Uygur on MSNBC says US should cut off military financial aid and see if that will coax the Regime to take the opposition in Tahrir square seriously
and end its 30 year old state of Emergency , stop abusing harassing and attacking the opposition and release all political prisoners.
In a recent article by Glenn Greenwald he argues that the US media will criticize corruption and human rights abuses and lack of democratic values etc. in describing some foreign nation but refuses to speak about the same corruption and abuse of human rights etc. in America. And even when a foreign nation is a client state of the USA the media ignores the part played by the USA in contributing to the corruption and the antidemocratic abuses of power by such a country.
So the media wants to ignore the kidnappings, assassinations, abuse and torture of POWs which America has taken part in and has encouraged such draconian and brutal repression of the citizens of America's client states.
The Media tries to promote the notion or national myth of America as being "The Good Guy" that promotes democracy and human rights yet the reality is more often than not just the opposite.
In the end America should be held accountable for its actions including propping up dictators such as Mubarak and acting as an enabler of his corrupt and abusive and brutal regime.
The Egyptian Mirror By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, February 07, 2011
-- - One of the most revealing journalistic genres is the effort by establishment media outlets to explain to their American audiences why Those Other Countries -- usually in the Middle East -- are so bad and awful and plagued by severe political and societal corruption
...Not even American propaganda could whitewash the fact that the U.S. has imposed Hosni Mubarak's regime on The Egyptian People for decades. His government is not merely our ally but one of our closest client regimes. We prop him up, pay for his tools of repression, and have kept him safe for 30 years from exactly this type of popular uprising -- all in exchange for his (a) abducting, detaining and torturing whom we want, (b) acting favorably toward Israel, and (c) bringing stability to the Suez Canal.
And yet it's remarkable how self-righteously our political and media class can proclaim sympathy with the heroic populace, and such scorn for their dictator, without really reconciling our national responsibility for Mubarak's reign of terror. Thanks to this Look Over There genre of reporting, we're so accustomed to seeing ourselves as The Good Guys -- even when the facts are right in front our noses that disprove that -- that no effort is really required to reconcile this cognitive dissonance. Even when it's this flagrant, we can just leave it unexamined because our Core Goodness is the immovable, permanent fixture of our discourse; that's the overarching premise that can never be challenged.
Some leading American officials have been criticized for recent statements that have been too starkly pro-Mubarak. Joe Biden was first when he decreed that Mubarak was "not a dictator" because "has been an ally of ours in a number of things" (as always in the American Foreign Policy world, whether someone is a democrat or a dictator is determined by how much they serve or defy America's will, not by how they acquired or use power; kudos to Biden for unintentionally being so candid about that). Then Hillary Clinton -- who said in March, 2009 that "I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family": her very politically enriched family, that is -- appeared to defend Mubarak's ongoing rule. Then, it was claimed that a State Department envoy, Frank Wisner, went off-script when he said Mubarak "must stay in office in order to steer those changes through." And Dick Cheney just praised Mubarak as a good friend and ally.
But I empathize more with these pro-Mubarak political officials than with their American critics. All Biden, Clinton, Wisner and Cheney are doing is reflexively giving voice to decades-old bipartisan U.S. foreign policy. They're defending Mubarak because he has been -- and still is -- our close friend and client ruler. He has loyally done our bidding, and in exchange, we've kept him in power and kept him close. That's why it's a bit difficult to endure the sudden outburst of righteous contempt for Egypt's dictator. We've eagerly sent our money and aid for decades to ensure that he wields power over Egyptians; all that's changed is that his true face has been exposed in a way that prevents us from turning away and denying what we support.
The fact that we don't actually regret anything is compellingly demonstrated by Obama's efforts to ensure the empowerment of Egypt's new "Vice President," Omar Suleiman, who has been Mubarak's -- and our -- brutal domestic enforcer and oppressor for years. Pragmatic arguments can of course be assembled to justify that support -- exactly the same way that support for Mubarak can be pragmatically justified. And that's the point: moral proclamations notwithstanding, we're not doing anything different with Egypt now. We're doing what we've always done: subjected the people of that region to hard-core oppression in order to advance what we perceive to be our interests (though, as 9/11 proved, that perception about self-interest is dubious in the extreme). That behavior would almost be tolerable if we were at least honest about it, but pretending that we're so very inspired by the democratic aspirations of the Egyptian people -- all while we have long acquiesced and still acquiesce in the extermination of those aspirations -- is a bit too much to withstand. But as long as we can keep Looking Over There to those bad people and bad things, none of these contradictions will be particularly bothersome.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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