Friday 4 February 2011

Americans Against Democracy

Salon.com has posted a very useful guide to Dictator Mubarak's influential American friends.

For most of them it comes down to a simple equation:

Democracy v. American and Israeli interests (as though they're the same thing).

And it's an easy call: Egyptians' human rights are far less important than maintaining the status quo. Occasionally - but not always - hidden is the claim that Egyptians and/or Muslims in general are incapable of behaving moderately, democratically or sensibly: simple racism.

However: these loud outriders aren't the only ones. While most Americans are, I suspect, largely in favour of the freedom movement (echoes of 1776 and all that) the US government's response has been very slow and cautious: the State Department is well-versed in privileging superpower hegemony over idealism.

I'd add another to this list of oligarchic tyranny cheerleaders: Tony Blair, who threw his largely discredited weight behind Mubarak.

Oh, and Silvio Berlusconi, who called him 'the wisest of men'. You can tell the quality of a man by the company he keeps - and that works both ways.

2 comments:

Sinéad said...

some Americans are also against democracy in their own country, if it seems to go clash with their 'Christian' values. (Please let this video work this time!)

This is particularly ironic, given the alleged solidarity (or is that too communist?) with Israel.

The Plashing Vole said...

No, doesn't work.
I particularly enjoyed a shot from one of the healthcare meetings in which an American wearing an 'I support Israel' t-shirt called an Israeli a 'Nazi-Communist' after it was pointed out that Israel has an NHS. Layers of irony!