Sunday, January 30, 2011

Tunisia and Egypt, Foreign Policy and Wikileaks

Didn't know how to start my blog, but went to CNN's page to check up on Egypt's current situation and voilĂ : "Should the West take sides in the Egypt crisis?"- asks Quickvote.

At first I thought that the West shouldn't get involved in neither of the crisises, because we all knew how tricky foreign politics can get. Every word counts! Take for example the instance when French President, Nicholas Sarzkozy, was asked whether his government would have accepted Algerian president (Abdelaziz Bouteflika), if something similar to Tunisian situation happened there. Did Sarkozy answer? Of course not!

Why didn't Sarzkozy answer? Because everybody (who is at least a little bit familiar with international relations) knows the rules of the game: everyone (i.e. every country) is on his/her own. Well, maybe not Canada...

The truth is that (even I, an idealist, recognize that!) we live in a realist world. Every head of state represents only and only his/her country's interests and that's it. Unless they are Woodrow Wilson or Jimmy Carter.

Do you think Biden doesn't think that Mubarak is a dictator? Of course he does, he just cannot say it, because he is the Vice-President of the United States! If Biden had called Hosni Mubarak a dictator and Mubarak didn't get ousted, the US would have lost one of their main allies in the Middle East. Have you seen the size of the foreign aid package US sends to Egypt?! Some argue that it's close to $1,5 billion, second only to Israel's "support."

The Middle Eastern question is also closely connected to the issue of Islamic extremism and terrorism, which is of course the biggest concern of the US foreign policy. If Mubarak is indeed ousted, there is a big chance that Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood will take a wrong turn and produce something similar to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who drives the whole world crazy with the claims of Iran's nuclear potential. Ina nutshell, as with any revolution, there is always a chance that everything will get worse rather than better. That is what the US is scared of and that is why Biden and Obama have been so disappointingly cautious talking about the situation in Egypt. I totally understood them!..

Until I remembered that the US was also the flagship of democracy, that promoting democracy is in fact the second objective of US foreign policy (once upon a time it used to be the first.) Until I remembered that it's the US that encourages people around the world to fight for their rights and freedom and pursue their dreams...Unless this "pursuit of happiness" somehow counteracts the US' foreign interests. Us prefers to protect its international interests rather than support people of Egypt in their fight for freedom. There is a chance in Egypt that something might go wrong and the US doesn't want to risk it. The happiness of Egyptian people is of course a secondary issue to the US foreign policy...

This double-facedness of foreign politics is exactly what Wikileaks have shown us. This and nothing else, nothing but the truth. The truth that explains why Biden so eagerly labeled Julian Assange a "high-tech terrorist" and was so reluctant to call Mubarak a "dictator."

And you, what do you make of all these surprising, exciting, and at some instances sad and tragic, but truly historic developments?