One prominent strain shaping American reaction to the protests in the Muslim world is bafflement, and even anger, that those Muslims are not more grateful to the US. After all, goes this thinking, the US bestowed them with the gifts of freedom and democracy – the very rights they are now exercising – so how could they possibly be anything other than thankful? Under this worldview, it is especially confounding that the US, their savior and freedom-provider, would be the target of their rage.
On Wednesday, USA Today published an article with the headline “After attacks in Egypt and Libya, USA Today asks: Why?” The paper appeared to tell its readers that it was the US that freed the Egyptian people from tyranny:
“Attacks in Libya that left four US diplomats dead – including Ambassador Christopher Stevens – and a mob invasion of the US Embassy in Cairo, in which the US flag was torn to shreds, have left many to wonder: How can people the USA helped free from murderous dictators treat it in such a way?”
Did you know that the “USA helped free” Egyptians from their murderous dictator? On Thursday night, NBC News published a nine-minute report on Brian Williams’ “Rock Center” program featuring its foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, reporting on the demonstrations in Cairo, which sounded exactly the same theme. Standing in front of protesting Egyptians in Tahrir Square, Engel informed viewers that this was all so very baffling because it was taking place “in Cairo, where the US turned its back on its old friend Hosni Mubarak”, and then added:
“It is somewhat ironic with American diplomats inside the embassy who helped to give these demonstrators, these protesters, a voice, and allowed them to actually carry out these anti-American clashes that we’re seeing right now.”
That it was the US who freed Egyptians and “allowed them” the right to protest would undoubtedly come as a great surprise to many Egyptians. That is the case even beyond the decades of arming, funding and general support from the US for their hated dictator (to his credit, Engel including a snippet of an interview with Tariq Ramadan pointing out that the US long supported the region’s dictators).
Beyond the long-term US support for Mubarak, Egyptians would likely find it difficult to reconcile Engel’s claim that the US freed them with the “made in USA” logos on the tear gas cannisters used against them by Mubarak’s security forces; or with Hillary Clinton’s touching 2009 declaration that “I really consider President and Mrs Mubarak to be friends of my family”; or with Obama’s support for Mubarak up until the very last minute when his downfall became inevitable; or with the fact that the Obama administration plan was to engineer the ascension of the loathed, US-loyal torturer Omar Suleiman as Mubarak’s replacement in the name of “stability”.
Given the history of the US in Egypt, both long-term and very recent, it takes an extraordinary degree of self-delusion and propaganda to depict Egyptian anger toward the US as “ironic” on the ground that it was the US who freed them and “allowed” them the right to protest. But that is precisely the theme being propagated by most US media outlets.
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Here is some commentary by Victor David Hansen of California on the media and Obama. It is important to begin with the fact that VDH states that he is a registered Democrat, farmer, teacher of classics in addition to writing commentary:
Victor David Hansen
pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/the-fantasy-house-of-barack-obama/?singlepage=true
Comments:
“There is not really any free press anymore, but instead
a Ministry of Truth, in which PBS, NPR, the New York Times,
the Washington Post, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN,
Newsweek, Time, AP, McClatchy, and Reuters are de
facto extensions of the Obama campaign — far more
highbrow and adept in disguising their partisanship than
an overt Hannity or Limbaugh. Their “journalists” are fed
favorable administration leaks when in the old days they
had to sue to publish a hit piece. They care little whether
ambassadors are left unguarded, or that the U.S. suffers the
most costly attack on its air assets since Vietnam, or that
administration officials offer lies about Libya that they
know cannot be true.
“Remember that the grandees of the universities, the
foundations, the arts, the unions, and the government
employees are all heavily invested in Obama — the class
warrior who assures those of the upper classes that class
and racial resentment will be turned against others.
“Remember the powers of presidential incumbency.
Remember that millions are still mesmerized by
teleprompted eloquence. Remember that each month
thousands more go on food stamps, receive disability
insurance, obtain unemployment insurance extensions,
and are excused from the federal income tax rolls — and
are loyal to those who enable them and hostile to those
who might not. Remember that to criticize Obama still
almost immediately earns the charge of “racist.”
It is not easy to overcome all that.
“This is an election of smiley fantasies versus a harsh
wakeup call to prevent looming financial and overseas
catastrophes in the next year or so. And fantasies, not
reality, are what half the population may now live for.
That Romney is close is a miracle; that he still can win
is beyond a miracle.