http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA25Ak06.htmlThe price of hypocrisy
By Mark LeVine
Almost two years ago, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a lecture at the American University in Cairo that came to symbolize the Bush administration's unprecedented agenda of democracy promotion in the Middle East. The Egyptian government, she told her audience of students and activists, must respect the rule of law and the will of its citizens, and move - albeit gradually - toward greater democracy.
Last week, the secretary returned to Egypt, but this time there was no mention of democracy or even of a hint of criticism at the growing repression since her last visit. Instead, Rice heaped praise on the country's autocratic rulers for their support of US foreign policy in the region. "Stability, not democracy" is once again America's priority in the Middle East.
Truth be told, the Bush administration's democracy agenda never went beyond nice words, so its demise will change little on the ground in Egypt, or the Arab world more broadly. But I wonder if, instead of parlaying with the country's geriatric autocrats, Rice could have met the young Egyptians I spent time with only a few weeks before her visit, would she have so easily betrayed their dreams, and with them what little goodwill the average Egyptian still has toward the United States?
If she had taken the time to watch the the videos I was shown by Egyptian friends (which are now circulating on the Internet) of a young bus driver, Imad el-Kabir, being sodomized with a broomstick by the police, or the still-nameless woman beaten while suspended upside down between two chairs, could Rice have stood next to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and thanked him for his government's help "on issues of common interest"?
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