Displaying the same allergy to actual democracy shown by Joe Klein (FAIR Blog, 2/3/11), Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer (2/4/11) calls, like Klein, for a military regime in Egypt to impose a “period of stability” for “guiding the country to free elections”–the kind of “free elections” in which the military will “guarantee” that the right people “prevail.”
The breathtaking hypocrisy of Krauthammer’s column–which begins “Who doesn’t love a democratic revolution?”–is on view in this passage:
Our paramount moral and strategic interest in Egypt is real democracy in which power does not devolve to those who believe in one man, one vote, one time. That would be Egypt’s fate should the Muslim Brotherhood prevail. That was the fate of Gaza, now under the brutal thumb of Hamas.
Aside from the fact that Krauthammer is borrowing a phrase from apologists for apartheid South Africa (e.g., Thomas Sowell, Chicago Tribune, 8/17/85), he really ought to be aware (thanks to the “Palestine Papers” leaked via Al-Jazeera) that the United States has demanded that Palestine not hold elections–threatening to cut off all aid if they did so (Guardian, 1/24/11).
And, of course, he would no doubt say exactly the same about Venezuela, where there has been election after election after election.
I wonder what the Krauthammer will say about his fellow countrymen when the U.S. erupts?
The best quote was an expert who works in Obamas administration middle east dept, who said this.”I have studied Arab governments for 35 years.When i began i did not understand them.Now ,35 years later…I still dont”!
I don’t know if Krauthammer is right. In the chess game of Geopolitical balance and counter balance he may be. Churchill said of Russia that it is a a riddle, wrapped in a mystery ,wrapped in an enigma..”It fits Egypt,and the middle east as well.No easy answers
These people, the whole US response, make one embarrassed to be American.
Stability is the be-all-and-end-all of geopolitics of the USA no matter what the regime is even the USSR’s too they wanted it to stay up! I don’t think most of them trust “the people” rather like our founders who wanted just a thin slice of white, Christian, land owners to be the voters. So it is now. Only the elites usually the rich and military to own countries who understand how to deal with rapacious hyper-powers like the USA in affairs of state and allocation of resources and strategic position. They will be happy if another dictator like Mubarik comes to power because they will work with the USA and the Muslim Brotherhood might not.
Nightgaunt
I feel your anger at what is in the end common sense.I think you are indicating that we will always take the lesser of two evils…as well we should.And our national interest(stability) must always be the primary objective. Certainly Geopolitics make strange bedfellows.Note our joining with Stalin to fight Hitlers armies.Our ideals must be woven ,not struck like a coin upon those we agree to lend our support.That would be a litmus test few could meet.Seemed on every trip my father would always say “we will get there…just not by morning”.
I cant agree with your narrow view of our founding fathers and their time period in history.
I have said fro many years that Israel corrupted the American Jews, by making them apologists for Iseael even if it is against the interest of the United States, and the American Jews then turned around and corrupted the public debate over the right and wrongs of that apatheid state, so in the end it was a lose-lose situation for everyone in this country. Krauthammer was the best of the American Jewish journalists before he got religion, and when the best are totally corrupted they turn automatically into the worst.
Sad story indeed.
Lawrence Did you actually say the state of Israel is against our interests?Um yeah the only sane country in the middle east that is a democracy and THAT is the country you pick as against our interests?
Then you call it an” apatheid”(sic) state.I sometimes wonder if the Israelis just did what the Arab states did that sit on 90% of Palestinian lands,if it would of been better.The Arab states simply said “your land is ours…your not getting it back….go pound sand”Maybe the Israelis should never of parlayed.It seems to of brought them misery and your derision.WHY is nothing directed at the Arab states?????Lets attack them first and formost.Israel only has a strip of their historic land under contention.Why are they the prime target?
The U.S. has always supported countries whose policies are in OUR best interests. And look what happens if they stray from that – Iraq for example. And look what is happening in Pakistan. The people don’t want to follow U.S. policy, especially the policy of using drone missile attacks on their property. So now the U.S. wants to withhold support to make them accept this. What would Krauthammer say if there was a true democratic revolution there. Would he “love that”?
Also, michael e, get a grip. Please comment on the article.