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U.S. and the Middle East Uprisings: Time to Get on the Right Side of History

3-18-2011

By Brian Dooley
Director, Human Rights Defenders Program

It was Lenin who said “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”. It seems like decades worth of history are suddenly happening in the Middle East, with every morning bringing some new development that would have been scarcely imaginable a few months ago.

There is much talk in Washington DC and elsewhere of this being a 1989 moment (or even an 1848 one), a massive reordering of global politics. It’s hard to think otherwise, but good outcomes are far from guaranteed, and the U.S. Government needs to work harder to get on the right side of history.

The Obama Administration’s record on developments has so far been mixed. Slow to appreciate the strength of the revolution in Egypt and Tunisia, it prevaricated and sent mixed messages to the region about whether it wanted Mubarak to stay or go. The U.S. Government still has lots of explaining to do to the people of Egypt and Tunisia about why it supported the repressive regimes there so strongly and for so long, and needs to convince people there that it’s now on the side of democracy and human rights. Some young pro-democracy leaders, unhappy at U.S. policy, refused to meet Secretary Hillary Clinton in Cairo last week.

In Egypt, the Obama Administration ought to be seen to be providing compensation for the losses suffered during the uprisings, and commit to developing a substantial trade package, debt forgiveness and other economic support. It should also help trace and repatriate money the corrupt Mubarak regime stole from the people.

It needs to declare that the recent reports of Egyptian soldiers detaining and abusing peaceful protesters should be investigated, and those responsible punished. If this is the message in Egypt, it must be the message in Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and elsewhere too.

There can be no double standard, no taking it easier on Saudi Arabia or Bahrain because they are allies. I called a human rights activist in Bahrain a couple of days ago who had been shot during a protest – he wasn’t seriously hurt, but told me people were being denied medical treatment by soldiers occupying the hospital, preventing doctors from treating the wounded. Secretary Clinton’s message to the Bahrain Government that it was “on the wrong track” in cracking down on peaceful protests went some way in the right direction, but it’s not really an overall strategy for promoting democracy in Bahrain. Some pro-democracy activists in Bahrain also believe the U.S. Government gave the green light for Saudi troops to enter the country to suppress dissent.

The rubber bullets, tear gas canisters and other weapons used by the security forces in Bahrain and elsewhere to crack down on the protests are often stamped ‘Made in the US’. It’s not great PR for America with the pro-democracy demonstrators.

On Libya, U.S. diplomats did well in securing multilateral support for the UN resolution authorizing military force to protect civilians, which at the time of writing appears to have stayed Qaddafi’s hand. But if the U.S. Government is to win the trust of people across the Middle East, it needs to convince them that its days of propping up repressive, torturing, corrupt regimes are over.

Popular uprisings pulled down the dictatorships built in Lenin’s name in 1989. There are plenty of examples from those days in Eastern Europe on how to – and how not to – make a successful transition from authoritarianism. The important thing for the U.S. in the coming days is to be consistent in pushing for democratic reforms and respect for human rights. There really is a chance to make decades of progress in the next few weeks.


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  • Steve Fontaine

    You must learn history before you can be on the right side of it. History dictates that when a revolution leaves a void of leadership, the strongest, most organized group will always take over. Democracy does not sprout from where there are no seeds. There is no pedigree of democracy anywhere in the middle east. Left wing interest groups, the western press, especially the naive American press, and cynical politicians,continually fall for the same line of monolithic thinking.

    Pick up a history book and study the Greek, French, Russian, German, Chinese, Iranian, Cuban and countless other revolutions and you will find a trade off from one form of tyranny to another.

    Then study the American Revolution and if your smart, you will understand why it succeeded. There was a culture and democratic spirit in eighteenth century America, and the colonies had new governments in place by the time the conflict began.

    As bad as Mubarak may have been, wait until he is replaced by someone else (MB). Gaddafi will be the same. If it spills to Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen and other Muslim countries, they will end up with some sort of Theocracy. Too much of the culture in these countries, mulls around Islam. People in this area are tribal, uneducated, and can only survive under strong, and always brutal leadership. OK. That’s just the way it is.

    The problem for America, is that unwise former leaders and even less wise current leaders have made America dependent on foreign countries for resources we can and should be developing ourselves. We will become slaves to the Middle Eastern oil countries that will perhaps come under a single Caliphate before long, and will be forced to pay whatever price they charge us. For many years, U.S. politicians have decided that energy policy should be structured around technology yet to exist and they have left us in this predicament, only to make it worse with bad foreign policy. Sometimes the tyrant you know is better than the one you don’t. The people in these countries will not be better off and we in the west will be much worse off. There will only be one democracy in the middle east. That will be Israel, but they will once again be surrounded by leaders who want to annihilate them, and their existence will once again be threatened.

    Wake Up USA.

  • damason

    america is probably the world power ,also making us to believe that they are promoting peace in the universe ,but focusing the peace or democracy mainly in oil rich countries is only pointing at one thing,lets hope and believe that is not based on selfish intrest.

  • Randolph Phillips

    I am always suspicious of anyone who quotes Lenin in an admiring way, since he is one of the great monstiers of the 29th century–perhaps all history.

    As for “being on the right side of history”, I find those are usually propagandists, and are not interested in the truth, but rather some partisan position in a given hisortical moment. Some of the people I’ve heard use the phrase probably can barely spell “history” and certainly look more for a justification of their viewpoint than the truth.

    So I’m not impressed with this story.

  • adeola

    i read your article topic: U.S. and the Middle East Uprisings: Time to Get on the Right Side of History

    but to say the fact how would you call Israel the only Democratic state in Middle East though if it is a democratic state by persecuting, torture, killing innocent Palestinians people (i now understand the mission of u.s government in the Middle East)