The political revolts in the Middle East, which have produced the overthrow of Ben Ali in Tunisia and the resignation of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, have also generated a flawed debate about the region. In this discourse repeated ad nauseum in the mainstream press and the policy world, the United States has to balance its views on democracy promotion and stability in the Middle East.
Despite pointing the way to nonviolent revolution, Gene Sharp was once viciously attacked by the left.
The Mubarak dictatorship is over! The military dictatorship lives on! The events in Tunisia and Egypt make it clear that change is coming to the Arab world. But is this change we can believe in? Unfortunately, it is increasingly evident that, although the demonstrators have won some concessions, authoritarianism remains in place.
Protesters in Martyr’s Square chanted “yesterday Egypt, today Algeria” during demonstrations in the Algerian capital Algiers on February 12. The Algerian government’s response to the protesters was reminiscent of Egypt’s ex-President Hosni Mubarak during the last five days of the 18-day protest in Cairo. Armed riot police and pro-government thugs attacked pro-democracy protesters to provoke violent clashes. The same aggressive approach to the protesters was seen again on February 19 when military-style armored police vehicles deployed throughout Algiers to prevent the protests from even forming.
In the midst of cries for freedom in the Middle East and Africa, novelist Ian McEwan claimed the Jerusalem Prize for Literature. Although I acknowledge McEwan’s accurate listing of major Israeli crimes, and admire his courage in enumerating them to such an audience, I found the speech on the whole to be intellectually, and perhaps psychologically, dishonest.
The Obama administration has unconditionally adopted the Calderon government position that together they are winning the drug war and all that´s needed is to stay the course. Both governments avidly support militarization of the border and of Mexico as the means to confront organized crime. Both governments write off human rights concerns and the bloodshed that the war on drugs has caused as a necessary cost.
Freedom is to conservatives what a scabbard is to a swordsman: a means to protect and conceal the implement of choice.
Will protests lead the Obama administration to implement real changes on how America approaches foreign policy in Africa?
“We have to learn to think and move in sync, without leader, without party, without manual. Swarm Intelligence Now!”
Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the peace group Code Pink and the founding director of Global Exchange. For over 20 years, she has supported human rights and social justice struggles around the world. With a delegation of nine activists, she was in Egypt during the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak. Here she talks with FPIF’s Hope Kwiatkowski about the reception of Americans in Tahrir Square, the future of revolution in the region, and how the U.S. government should react.