Egypt and others

I find this article hilarious. America's other embarrassing allies.

I've been saying for a long time that America is a country that goes with the lesser of evils, but then often doesn't consider future ramifications... Lately, we've been hearing all about Egypt, an American ally.  Well, unfortunately, in the last three decades, Egypt's government has not mirrored what you think an ally would look like.  

Time and time again, America supports dictators who are consistently oppressing their people.  Granted, on the outside and to most people on this side of the pond, this dictator is more of a constant itch to the proud Egyptian people.  Or so you would think, since it's hasn't been your President for oh what, over 30 YEARS?  Can you imagine ____(insert your favorite President here)___ being president for 30 years?  A lot changes in 30 years (certainly, I'm not even 30 years old).  So you have to think that the best leader wouldn't be the same guy 30 years ago as it is today.  To put it in perspective this is what Europe looked like in 1981 (if you can't tell the difference, I can't help you there):

Now, if we know anything about the great old USA, not many people agree here.  And, it's in the constitution that we can't be forced to think anything; we have the right to think or say pretty much anything we want.  Well, not the case in Egypt.  Supposedly, this Prez has been elected since 1981.  But many International sources will tell you that these elections were rigged.  Even in the article featured on this link, its estimated that 10-20% of the population even BOTHERED to go out and vote.  In America, the numbers are still lower than they should be, but if 1 of 10 people are voting, that doesn't really give an accurate picture of anything. At least a majority of citizens must come out to vote.  In 2005, the election showed that the second place finisher only got 7% of the vote!  No leader is that perfect.

America seems to do this time after time.  The whole reason why I was in Afghanistan last was because of our mistakes in the past... The lessor of the two evils, the mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Soviets sounded like a good idea.  The Soviets were atheists, which Americans don't relate well to, at least as forced lack of religion (because there are certainly Atheists in the United States).  But then, do we really want a radical group of anything at the helm?  I would argue it probably would have been better for Afghanistan to have been Soviet since there was no way the Soviets would last forever.  Once they started borrowing and going into debt... But that's for another discussion... Afghans needed choice, as Iran needed choice.  Which is why the radicals ended up taking over.  I remember in college talking to a professor who was there, who was one of the first woman to don the black hijab in support of the Islamic Revolution.  Of course, she now regrets this support.  Although, it's common knowledge that Americans supported the Shah of Iran, another dictator, who was very unpopular in Iran... Does anybody see a pattern forming?

Back to Egypt.

I sincerely hope that there are some positives in this development.  Certainly, I hope that more than 10% of the population is involved with the next election that Mubarak said he wouldn't run in.  If the population is in control of the government, if they can elect leaders and continue to elect people if the people they first elect are in need of replacement, I think the future looks bright.  I think the new "scary" group that could take control of Egypt is Islamic (the American people seem to think that any group of Muslims are extremists).  However, Egypt has long been a center for Arab politics in particular, as in the race/ethnic group, and not Islam, although it is an integral part of society.  I must say however, that Christian beliefs in this country are used in the same way they fear that Islam will become intertwined in politics.  I watched the brand new Alabama governor tell people in his first speech that anybody not Christian was his brother.  Islam can co-exist with politics, and Egypt is a unique country in that 10% of the population is Christian (about 9% Coptic, which similar to Islam has no images of people in their churches and so on because that would be idolatry...), and those people are not likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

Nobody knows how this will end up, but I hope that real elections take place.  Although I'm not naive, it's not going to be that easy.  Peaceful protests turning violent as we speak... It would be a shame to see it under military rule.

Egypt is a country that I wish I had been able to visit.  I was going to study at the American University of Cairo in college.  However, ROTC wouldn't cover me to go.  Needless to say, I wasn't your typical "ROTC-nazi" either and preferred to stay away from the ROTC building as much as possible.  I really didn't care.  I knew I was going to live the Army for at least four years, and I wanted to enjoy college.  Can you blame me?  Someday, I still hope to go to AUC, maybe for an LLM in International Comparative Law after law school....

Sorry for the rant.  I don't know how coherent it was, but there is a lot going on in my head lately.