The U.S. Department of State currently finds itself in a complex predicament due to the revolution in Egypt. The United States has been allied with Hosni Mubarak for the past 30 years. The US has since given over $26.8 billion in aid to Egypt. Our government therefore has extreme influence in Egypt, yet rarely did they encourage true democracy. In 2005, former
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a speech encouraging free elections. Slight encouragement is the extent of the U.S.'s work to promote Egyptian democracy. The U.S. often called for the freedom of political prisoners and other dissidents, but little more was done in the name of free speech. Now that the Egyptian people are revolting against their oppressive government, the U.S. is faced with a dilemma. Should they support this revolution with its ideals of liberty and freedom, or continue to side with their ally of 30 years? Either way, the government looks slightly hypocritical. It seems the US supported Mubarak because he believed in weakening Islam. He is our only ally in the Middle East, and it seems as if our country supported his oppression of his people out of concern for our own domestic safety. Our government overlooked its principles and values and took the easy way out, choosing to support a regime that was inherently unstable due to its military nature. As Michael Gerson of the Washington Post said,"again, we are seeing that it is neither principled nor prudent for America to base its strategies in the Middle East on the denial of rights we value".
Now that Mubarak's regime is on the brink of collapse, America is worried the government will be taken over by Islamic radicals, which is the very problem they hoped to avoid in the first place. Our government has been left with little choice but to again call for legitimate free elections. If the government had not forsaken its principles and helped allow freedom of speech and expression, perhaps radicalism would not have taken root. The
Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, a non-violent Muslim organization, was banned in 1954 and has been illegal ever since. Mubarak has supported the ban since he came to power in 1981. The Brotherhood openly repudiated terrorism and the 9/11 attacks, however they have been banned and repressed again and again. If anything, this cycle of oppression would promote violence. The U.S. has failed to recognize that everyone is entitled to free speech and liberty, those rights we hold so dear, regardless of whether we agree with their viewpoints or not. Besides moral obligations, it was in the United States' own interests to keep this group and the people of Egypt, not their leader, happy.
