Arianna appeared on ABC's "This Week with Christiane Amanpour" on Sunday, as part of a roundtable discussion on the protests in Egypt with George Will, Robert Kagan and Mona Eltahawy.
"Right now there's been a perfect storm of three conditions," Arianna said. "The growing connectivity in the Middle East. It's phenomenal what is happening -- 5 million people on Facebook in Egypt. There's been the growing unemployment among the young, which has been a tinderbox, especially after the global recession. And also there's been this real organization of a dozen to fifteen real leaders, including Ghonim from Google, who've been a lot of very creative and very important things. And so even though there isn't a Lech Walesa, there is real leadership behind this movement."
Regarding the political power dynamics in the Middle East, Kagan said, "We've been under the illusion that these dictators were somehow bulwarks against radicalism, and we've got to understand that stability is not dictatorship. Stability may mean gradual change toward genuine democratic society."
"So many powers, including Iran, are under the illusion that they can control what's happening," Arianna replied. "Whether we endorse it or not, may be irrelevant. Whether Iran calls for an Islamic revolution, as it did, or not, is irrelevant because this is not an Islamic revolution. There are Christians and Muslims, and it has a real non-ideological tenor, which is what makes it so strong."
Arianna also said that the United States has a role to play in helping to foster democracy in Egypt. "We have this leverage of the $2 billion that we give Egypt every year. Of course, let's compare that with the $2.8 billion that we spend in Afghanistan every week, just to see how we also need to refigure our priorities in the globe."
And I worry a little when the first thing the generals seem to take aim at are striking working people. I hear the protesters asked to suspend the constitution and dismiss parliament, and maybe they did. Maybe both entities are just Mubarak machines to maintain control. Hope so.
But something makes me a little uneasy when the first four things I hear are:
-The army takes over
-the constitution is suspended
-the governing body is dismissed
-strikes and labor issues are top priority
I am wrong so often, and I hope I am here. I wish those people the best and like everyone else, I'm kind of holding my breath.
And if things do turn out well, that would be fantastic.
Mona Eltahawy was the real star of the show. None, including Arianna, really understand what took place and Mona had to keep reminding the others.
Her best line , as near as I can remember, was that the Egyptians should come to DC and show the US citizenry how to take back its own government.
Right now, you've got no clips, so what is the point?
Two phenomena are brought out in sharp contrast: --
1) limits and end of unconstrained American worldview and philosophy of "Might makes Right";
2) the unimagined potency of people power based on the worldview of "Right makes Might".
Arianna mentioned Washington is wasting $2.8 BILLION each week on "democratising" Afghanistan, with no success. Contrast that with the power of several hundred thousand unpaid, determined and peaceful young Egyptians risking their own lives in the public squares in many Egyptian cities. The bankruptcy of one worldview and policy, and the potency of a fundamentally different and opposing worldview and approach are now laid out in the open for all Americans and the world to see.
$2.8 billion per week = $145.6 billion per year. That's a lot of money to throw down a bottomless hole. The trajectory of that policy approach ends in fiscal bankruptcy of the nation and moral bankruptcy of the people. If that projection wasn't clear before the Egyptian Revolution, the sharp contrast in differences of approach should bring things into clear focus after the past 2 weeks.
America, it's time to voluntarily dismantle empire, and restore the republic.
Since it did, if I may add, if you are going to have a Divorce section - which seems a little weird - why don't you have a Marriage section, or a Relationships section. seriously.
You should find a better site if you want political. Go to bbc.com or something. But don't wine about it. (even though that's essentially what I just did).
Esh.
It's time to understand - and I agree with her when she says that Obama do seems to understand - that it's in our own best interests to have real, full-fledged democracies in the region, which doesn't mean states that have free elections (that's the Republican idea of democracy), but institutions that can guarantee the rule of law, a dynamic and high quality media landscape, and separation of the three branches of government and respect for minorities written in the Constitution. THAT's what a real democracy looks like, and that's what we should support in the region.
This isn't just about supporting or getting rid of dictators. It's much more than that. And if you want a non violent transition period, continuing to support dictators but also moving towards broad reform instead of simply repeating that we would like more respect for human rights is crucial.
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How will the American people absorb this evidence and will their perceptions of Washington, the Defense establishment and the traditional notions of global power?
Romania didn't break free until the collapse of the USSR. they had the benefit a environment of settled European nations around them to help them and the European Union to support them. And if you think it was cost free, you need to do more research.
Beside Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Poland all benefited from the "velvet revolution". Egypt is in no way the same.
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The new regime in Egypt, at least in the short term, will most likely be the military, & not the Muslim Brotherhood. They are already in charge, are not hated by the people (yet anyway), & are supported monetarily by the US aid we send them each year. This will also insure stability with Israel as if they don't maintain the peace accord, the money will stop flowing.