Egyptian Reformers Boycott Obama's Speech

Anthony

Inclined to agree. It is indeed rather disappointing. There's no point in being naive - it's fairly clear that liberal secularist reformers don't have enough support and a big enough head of steam to make a difference and it's also the case that the Bush admin bungled the democracy promotion angle and that, managed in a cackhanded manner, Western attempts to aid indigenous liberal democrats can have the overall effect of stripping them of domestic legitimacy.*

However, one can acknowledge all of that while still being a little concerned that the message fairly substantial swathes of the bureaucracy and the left wing commentariat increasingly seems to have for third world liberals is "Piss off". And I say this as somebody who stands broadly in the realist tradition in international relations.

ndm

I think people are making too much of the drop in aid for democracy promotion. There are many ways to promote democracy in a country without direct or indirect funding of political parties.

Steven A. Cook writes in Newsweek:

-- Clumsy democracy promotion often does little good and can even make matters worse—not just in Egypt but in other authoritarian systems resistant to reform. Between 2004 and 2007, the Bush administration increased the share of the economic aid for Egypt it devoted to democracy and governance by 133 percent, from $37 million to $86.5 million—or about a fifth of its entire annual economic-aid package to Cairo. But these raises came at the expense of programs devoted to agriculture, the environment, health care and infrastructure development, which experienced funding cuts ranging from 44 to 100 percent. As a result, some wildly successful programs were eliminated, such as one that helped improve the lot of impoverished rural farmers. In their place, Washington implemented new programs, like one to run political-reform conferences for Egypt's regional governors—a futile endeavor, given that these individuals answer only to Mubarak and that more than half of them are police or military officers.

Regardless of Bush Administration policies on democracy promotion in Egypt the overall policies of the Administration greviously damaged the cause of democracy promotion everywhere.

porkbelly

But just because Dear Leader Obama (blessings of the House of Saud upon him) is prepared to turn a blind eye to human rights violations abroad, surely he will never crack down on dissent at home. Right?

Bill Markley

Also, the Obama Administration has insisted that members of the Muslim Brotherhood be invited to Obama's much-heralded speech. For those unfamiliar with the Muslim Brotherhood, they advocate global jihad and sharia law.

Along with many of Obama's actions since becoming president, this is more evidence that he does not value freedom very highly except for himself and his supporters.

peter watkins

One human rights abuser at a time.

Today Israel.
Tomorrow other culprits

Its a qustion of priorities.