Does Egypt Matter to the US Public? You Better Believe it Does!

So far we have given Egypt about 70 billion dollars to cover for Israel. We attempted to purchase with our money, security for Israel, and Mubarak has proven himself a loyal puppet and has maintained a false peace...

Courtesy: Stanford University

(JAMESTOWN, R.I.) - Most Americans are not focused on the unfolding events in the Middle East because they see them as irrelevant to the US and their own personal lives.

They don’t have any idea of how they have been, and will be impacted, in the future. Our misguided policy of supporting dictators in Middle East has aroused the rage of folks in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and Jordan, and if you do not think events will affect the American public, hearken back to the horrible disaster of 9/11 which occurred because of our foolish policy in the Middle East.

Although American media has done its best to cover up the real reason for 9/11, the perpetrators themselves told us exactly why they did it.

After the failed attempt to destroy the Twin Towers of New York in 1993, the perpetrators issued a statement explaining why they attacked the towers, and also issued a warning, claiming they would try again if policy did not change.

Clearly they told us in written message; they attacked because of our policy of supporting dictators in their countries, of having US military bases on their soil, and because of our on sided policy regarding the Palestinians.

The policy did not change, and as promised the perpetrators retuned, this time to tragically succeed in bringing down the towers and killing many innocent Americans. Osama Bin Laden then repeated the exact same message after 9/11.

Strangely after almost every single subsequent terrorist act against the US, the same kind of warning and threat followed, which US media, for some inexplicable reason failed to convey to the US public.

Warnings have consistently mentioned our one sided policy regarding Palestine, maintaining military bases in Middle East nations, and supporting dictatorships.

Hosni Mubarak and Barack Obama U.S. State Dept. photo

So here we are, for the past 25 years having supporting a powerful dictator in Egypt, and even as the Egyptians have taken to the streets in an effort to end dictatorship and establish a more representative government, the Obama administration has failed to enthusiastically support the quest of Egyptians for freedom from dictatorship, but has chosen to take the political “fence” position by tepidly supporting both sides.

Years ago the US bought Mubarak, and we have given him almost as much foreign aid as Israel with the understanding that he would carry water for the U.S. and Israel. So far we have given Egypt about 70 billion dollars to cover for Israel.

We attempted to purchase with our money, security for Israel, and Mubarak has proven himself a loyal puppet and has maintained a false peace with Israel, while participating in the US –Israeli attempt to starve Gaza for voting Hamas into power.

U.S. Ambassador Margaret Scobey, in a just released Wikileaks cable, said in 2009: “Torture and police brutality in Egypt are endemic and widespread."

The cable describes in detail the torture and repressiveness of the Egyptian government, but our government did not care about the fate of innocent Egyptians.

This photo documenting police brutality in Egypt, sadly, is one example of many posted online for US politicians to see, or perhaps to have seen... for themselves, before it was too late.

The great unspoken fear in Congress and within the administration, is that if Mubarak falls and a new more representative government is formed, it might not be willing to participate any longer in the starvation of Gaza and open the Rafah crossing and allow food to get to the starving Gazans. It might not be willing to carry the water for Israel and the US.

This would be disastrous for Israel, but because all of US policy in the Middle East is designed to cover for Israel, we continue to support the dictator.

The entire US Middle East policy, including supporting a repressive brutal dictator with huge sums of aid money, participating in the starving 1.5 million people, condoning a brutal attack on Gaza in which over 1,500 innocents were slaughtered, two thirds of whom were children, invading Iraq to eliminate Israel’s main rival, defending Israel’s attack on a humanitarian relief ship in international waters resulting in nine innocent deaths, including an American citizen, defending the illegal seizure of lands from Palestinians, maintaining a racist apartheid national policy, provoking a war on Iran to eliminate another of Israel’s many enemies, is simply designed to insure Israel’s security.

This is a disastrous policy for Americans, as evidenced by 9/11, and it is clear that both the Congress and the President have put Israeli interests ahead of American security.

How many more American lives must be shed to insure Israel’s security?

That depends upon how much longer the US Congress and the administration will continue to put the wishes and interests of Israel ahead of the interests of the American people, but keep in mind the “insurgent math” of General McChrystal, who said for every innocent person we kill, ten new enemies are created.

Salem-News.com Writer Joe Clifford, lives in historic Jamestown, Rhode Island, and has contributed a number of articles relating to foreign policy to newspapers in the Rhode Island area for years.

He graduated from Providence College where he earned an undergraduate and graduate degree. After a lengthy career as a high school teacher he turned to the study of US foreign policy, and then to writing, as a means of expressing an alternative perspective. His reading and research on foreign policy is broad and extensive, especially as the policy relates to the Middle East. His interest in foreign policy was inspired by the American misadventure in Vietnam. You can write to Joe at this address: jc21131@gmail.com