A U.S. plan to fund the democratic transition in Egypt has led to a confrontation with the country’s new rulers, who are suspicious of American aims and what they see as political interference in the aftermath of President Hosni Mubarak’s downfall.
Senior Egyptian officials have warned nongovernment organizations that taking U.S. funding would damage the country’s security. The Egyptian government has also complained directly to the U.S.
“I am not sure at this stage we still need somebody to tell us what is or is not good for us—or worse, to force it on us,” Fayza Aboul Naga…
Kudos to the Egyptians. Generally speaking, U.S. aid does not assist in the transition to democracy; it torques a country’s policies, through bribing its leadership, into subservience to U.S. hegemony. Without more resistance to America’s continued unrelenting imposition in that region, Obama – and whomever comes after him – will continue to pounce on this Arab Spring by supporting those who wish to suppress it.
Dov S. Zakheim at the National Interest:
The Obama administration has already announced that it will issue $1 billion in loan guarantees to help Egypt borrow on the world markets at favorable rates. Washington has also stated that it will convert $1 billion of Egyptian debt into “investments.” American assistance should be welcomed by a people more than three quarters of whom, according to a poll by the International Republican Institute, view their current economic circumstances as either “somewhat bad” or “very bad.” But that is not the case at all […] America is held in such low esteem by the Egyptian public that a recent Gallup poll found over half its respondents opposed to their government accepting aid from Washington.
Egyptians have a conscious disdain for America’s lavish support of their dictator these past 30 years. Numerous issues lead them away from what the U.S. would prefer for the leading Arab state: namely, standing up to Israel and advocating for Palestinian rights and engaging Iran diplomatically, among others.
The interim government in Egypt still has very serious problems, with 7,000 civilians jailed since Mubarak’s ouster and remaining pressure to give many of them military trials as opposed to civilian. Egypt has surprisingly still not lifted the emergency law so hated during Mubarak, abuse of civilians during the protests has still gone unaccounted for, and laws that restrict freedom are still in place. Many elements of the Mubarak regime are still present in the governing authorities and U.S. intervention in Egypt’s internal affairs will almost surely secure their places there for good.
Zakheim is the quintessential Israel first (and only) neo-con. Egyptians should run away from men like him. They're horrible.
"Democracy Funding"…, is that a new concept bribing people in new terms in democracy and funding it.., if that's the case then what kind of democracy we are talking about here.., if is a paid one then it must come with some attachments.., beside the interests of that 1 billion dollars what other attachment is there. I mean come on man.., this not democracy.., US government seam to running out of option here so they need to go back to its history and start bribing "democracy" itself to get some "democracy" back.
Funny.., even democracy have become a joke for democrats to work on.., give the 1 billion dollars to education system in USA.., people in USA need that money more then the falsified democracy made possible by Obama and Hillary Clinton or for that matter the democratic party.
good for the people of Egypt.
The author clearly hasn't been paying attention. According to a report in Washington Post, U.S. "democracy" funding trained up to 80% of the leaders of the Egyptian "revolution"…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti…
For those who believe these uprisings were spontaneous, take a look at Al-Jazeera's "Egypt: Seeds of Change" and the new Journeyman documentary, "The Revolution Business." Both are available on You Tube.
Egyptians have to distance themselves from the imperial world dictatorship that pretends to encourage democracy…. BTW, who wont the elections in Palestine last time? Not the Hamas? why are they not governing then? Because the imperial masters want a democracy that meets their needs, not a government for the people and by the people. They use democracy just as a means of controlling other countries. The world dominion cannot go like that forever since people see what's going on and they'll resist doing as you say and start doing as you do. Since you're a barbarian using drones to slaughter innocent civilians at night, the survivors of your barbaric acts will turn against you sooner or later.
These gadgets are the latest additions to excessive water sports activities so strive them out and find out if rising thirty ft above the water is a summer time highlight. Perhaps rather less excessive than a jet pack, but that doesn't mean you will not get your heart racing with this one.
55 Liesse