Karl Denninger shares his thoughts on Egypt and our involvement in the Middle East mess. – Ilene
Courtesy of Karl Denninger, The Market Ticker
Which murderous thug are we supporting here? Is the real answer "all of them"?
This much we know. The United States basically funded and installed Mubarak after Anwar Sadat was assassinated. We have continually propped up The House of Saud and King Abdullah as well, sending both plenty of arms and "material." Saudi Arabia, of course, provides us with lots of oil. For this we overlook the The House of Saud’s horrifying human rights record, especially for women. There is no dispute that the Saudi government is a dictatorial and authoritarian regime, and that fundamental human rights are abused for sport there.
In the case of Mubarak he also plundered the nation to the tune of tens of billions of dollars with our express assistance and consent.
In addition we have reports that Abdullah may have pretty-much directly told Obama to not "embarass" Mubarak. (Assuming he’s not dead, and there are reports he is. Wouldn’t that be a fine addition to this mess?)
If Abdullah did indeed make that call, Obama has been fellating the Saudi King since with his "treatment" of the Egyptian protests. Given the idiocy of our energy policy over the last three decades I’m entirely on board with the possibility that Saudi Arabia twisted our arm. See how contagious stupidity can be through the years – and how it can turn into rank extortion?
Here’s the ultimate expression of the problem, as has been repeatedly shown over the years and throughout nations worldwide: Political power, once the people responsible decide to dig in their heels, is only ceded when the people are willing to attach an "or else" to their protests and convince those in power they mean it.
We have preached that legitimate government comes only from the consent of the governed for more than 200 years. But do we live that? Certainly not when it comes to foreign policy, and there’s a colorable claim that we don’t live it here in America either.
In Egypt we installed and have supported for decades a murderous thug. Worse, the current VP is essentially a CIA-installed thug as well to whom we have sent terror suspects for torture!
The people of Egypt have rejected both of these clowns, and properly so, as is their right.
We like to talk about an "orderly transition of power to democracy" but the fact of the matter is that we have done nothing of the sort since 1981. "Respect the understandings in the region", as many talking heads are saying? How do you intend to do that? We installed with our power, our money and the sale of our weapons two murderous thugs in this nation, and we have supported dictators of all stripes around the Middle East!
The choice becomes clear: Either we ignore thuggery against the Egyptian people, or we don’t "respect the understandings in the region." If I get a vote (and I don’t) I say the hell with the so-called "understandings", including and especially Saudi Arabia’s.
The people in Egypt have declared that peaceful protest should bring results by demonstrating in a conclusive manner that the government has lost their consent.
Yet Mubarak will not leave, and neither will Suleiman, despite the fact that the people have declared that neither is an acceptable political leader in their nation.
Let me ask an inconvenient question, as I am often known to do:
If several million people showed up in Washington DC, filled the Washington Mall, surrounded the Capitol and 1600 Pennsylvania and refused to leave until President Obama and the entire Congress resigned, being replaced via immediate elections, would our government resign and leave as the people demanded, or would they fire on the demonstrators and use other means of violence to force them to disperse?
That is, are we hypocrites?
Government with the consent of the governed eh?
Nice words.
Do we mean them, or are they a game? Would our government honor its own words were it to come to that some day?
We shall see, most certainly there, and, if we continue to allow people like Bernanke to keep distorting the markets and hiding bad debts, eventually we will get to determine this right here. No, not today, not tomorrow. But in the future, given the unsustainable path we are on? If we do not change course that is a certainty.
Again, as I said a week or so ago, watch carefully what goes on over there and learn from it.
It’s always easier to learn from someone else’s mistakes than suffering the consequences of those mistakes yourself.
PS: Want to understand the real threat to the government in Egypt – and anywhere else? It’s not violence. Violence is revolution – the armed sort. No, the real power resides in the fact that the people can always go on a general strike and refuse to return to work. There’s not a damn thing any government can do about that, and it soon starts causing exponential damage if you can get any meaningful percentage of the population to participate. The fact is this: The people always have the power, no matter what any government asserts or claims, and refusing to work is lawful.
