The resistance in Egypt has vastly expanded since this essay was written. Perhaps the most critical and hopeful aspect of the uprising is its secular nature. Until now, the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood has been the only significant opposition to the Mubarak regime. They do not support the students and workers in the streets as there are no religious demands advocated. Now, there is restiveness within their own organization, many younger members demanding support for the struggle. This is mirrored in Tunisia, as we know, but also in Yemen, Algeria, Jordan and much of the Arab middle east. It is not, repeat NOT a Muslim revolt, but more akin to what's happened in Latin America, focussing on poverty, government corruption and civil rights. It may fail, of course, but this is the first area-wide revolt since their independence from European imperialist control, half a century ago.
I just heard a M.E. reporter on kpfk saying the Brotherhood has ordered their members into the streets to join the protest, already organized for after Friday's prayers. Something's happening, Mr. Jones, so stay tuned. Ed http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175346/tomgram:_juan_cole,_american_policy_on_the_brink/ From: TomDispatch Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:30 AM Tomgram: American Policy on the Brink, and Juan Cole: The Corruption Game: January 25, 2011 "The problem: Washington's foreign-policy planners seem to be out of ideas, literally brain-dead, just as the world is visibly in flux." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently took a four-day tour of the Middle East, at each stop telling various allies and enemies, in classic American fashion, what they must do. And yet as she spoke, events in Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, and even Egypt seemed to spin ever more out of American control. Meanwhile, the regime in Tunisia, one of the autocratic and repressive states Washington has been supporting for years even as it prattles on about "democracy" and "human rights," began to crumble. In Doha, Qatar, in front of an elite audience peppered with officials from the region, Clinton suddenly issued a warning to Arab leaders that people had "grown tired of corrupt institutions and a stagnant political order" and that "in too many ways, the region's foundations are sinking into the sand." With Tunisia boiling over and food riots in Algeria and Jordan, she insisted that it was time for America's allies to mend their ways and open themselves to "reform." A New York Times report, typical of coverage here, described her talk as a "scalding critique" which also "suggested a frustration that the Obama administration's message to the Arab world had not gotten through." And there, of course, was the rub. After all, since Barack Obama entered the Oval Office in January 2009, U.S. foreign policy has essentially been in late-second-term-Bush mode and largely on autopilot, led by a holdover Secretary of Defense and a Secretary of State who might well have been chosen by John McCain, had he won the presidency. Look at Clinton's address again and, beyond a reasonably accurate description of some regional problems (and that frustration), only the vaguest of bromides are on offer. The problem: Washington's foreign-policy planners seem to be out of ideas, literally brain-dead, just as the world is visibly in flux. In their reactions, even in their rhetoric, there is remarkably little new under the sun, though from Tunisia to India, China to Brazil, our world is changing before our eyes. One of the new things on this planet has certainly been WikiLeaks, whose document dumps were initially greeted by the Obama administration with stunned puzzlement and then with an instructively blind and repressive fury. (Forget the fact that the State Department should be thanking its lucky stars for WikiLeaks' latest document dump. Overshadowed by the Pentagon as it is, all the ensuing attention gave it a prominence that is increasingly ill-deserved.) As TomDispatch regular Juan Cole, who runs the invaluable Informed Comment website and is the author of Engaging the Muslim World, makes clear, it's not just America's Arab allies who are "sinking into the sand." These days, for the Obama administration, it's a quagmire world. Tom --- The Corruption Game What the Tunisian Revolution and WikiLeaks Tell Us about American Support for Corrupt Dictatorships in the Muslim World By Juan Cole Here's one obvious lesson of the Tunisian Revolution of 2011: paranoia about Muslim fundamentalist movements and terrorism is causing Washington to make bad choices that will ultimately harm American interests and standing abroad. State Department cable traffic from capitals throughout the Greater Middle East, made public thanks to WikiLeaks, shows that U.S. policy-makers have a detailed and profound picture of the depths of corruption and nepotism that prevail among some "allies" in the region. The same cable traffic indicates that, in a cynical Great Power calculation, Washington continues to sacrifice the prospects of the region's youth on the altar of "security." It is now forgotten that America's biggest foreign policy headache, the Islamic Republic of Iran, arose in response to American backing for Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, the despised Shah who destroyed the Iranian left and centrist political parties, paving the way for the ayatollahs' takeover in 1979. State Department cables published via WikiLeaks are remarkably revealing when it comes to the way Tunisian strongman Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his extended family (including his wife Leila's Trabelsi clan) fastened upon the Tunisian economy and sucked it dry. The riveting descriptions of U.S. diplomats make the presidential "family" sound like True Blood's vampires overpowering Bontemps, Louisiana. To read more: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175346/tomgram:_juan_cole,_american_policy_on_the_brink/ ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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