Egypt and The Middle East

! UPDATE ! Muslim Brotherhood says, "Essam Sharaf has a 'good reputation'..." Essam Sharaf is Egypt's new prime minister.

! UPDATE ! Muslim Brotherhood Plans to Spawn Political Party in Egypt

For those of you who are not very familiar with the middle east or Egypt there is a book which can greatly help you. Will the Middle East Go West is a brilliant book which helps to explain much of what is going on today. Visit this site to read Freda Utley's work.

The Middle East has long been misunderstood and incorrectly portrayed by U.S. media outlets. The average American has no idea what is going on in Egypt. While I don't have all of the answers, I would like to attempt to make some sense of it.

Egypt has been the center of many major historical events which often ended poorly for Egypt. The British and the French dominated Egypt's economy for a number of years.

Freta Utley:

England established her dominion over Egypt, and France hers over Morocco and Algeria, during the same century that China was being converted into a “sub-colony” of the Western Powers. And when, during World War I, the Arabs of the Fertile Crescent won their liberation from Turkey by fighting for England and France, they found they had merely exchanged Turkish for British or French overlords in Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The Suez Canal has long been a point of contention globally. The global importance of the canal has always effected Egypt's political atmosphere, and more importantly its ability to control its own destiny. The leader of Egypt during the Suez Crisis was Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Nasser was walking a fine line trying to make sure that Egypt remained a sovereign nation while still getting the foreign aid that it needed. During the 50s U.S. foreign policy was geared towards keeping Egypt from becoming a satellite of the Soviet Union. At the time the general position for the U.S., to make it very simple, was that any revolution was bad because it was most likely spearheaded by Russia. Egypt was attempting to please everyone and remain neutral when it came to the U.S. and Russia.

Egypt, unable to protect itself militarily, acquired weapons from the Soviets. Because of Egypt's relationship with the Soviet Union (by way of arms deals) the U.S. withdrew funding for the Aswan Dam project.

Quote from James William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee January 3, 1945 – December 31, 1974:

"The Aswan Dam project was a sound project from the point of view of engineering feasibility and it was a reasonable risk for economic development loans. Sources of capital other than those involved in the offer which was made to Egypt, both private sources and other government sources, were definitely interested in pursuing the project

. . . . it was recognized that the Aswan Dam. . . was vital to the future of Egypt. . . without such a development, Egypt with its increasing population, may be expected to suffer a constantly lowerin g standard of living . . . [causing] social and political unrest in Egypt . . . [and endangering] the unstable peace of the Middle East.

The Administration’s decision to withdraw the offer to Egypt was made against the advice of the United States Ambassador to Egypt, and the President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Shortly after; Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company.

On 26 July 1956, in retaliation for the loss of funding and to help pay for the Aswan project, Nasser gave a speech in Alexandria where he denounced Western influence in the Arab world and announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company,[59] and how existing stockholders would be paid off.

Because of the Suez Canal's importance with relation to global trade; Egypt has been primarily controlled by outside forces even to this day. Because Egypt's exports are weak, whoever could supply necessary foreign aid had the most influence. Since the 50s that has primarily been the U.S. Egypt is in the same situation as many other Middle Eastern state. There is a growing population which doesn't export enough to support its population. The end result is a largely populated country with no control over its destiny.

The rioting in Egypt is happening for the most part because of food prices. In the U.S. we spend around 10% of our individual GDP on food and eat three meals a day. To contrast, Egyptians spend close to 50% of their individual GDP on food and eat two meals a day.

Economists and experts in food security have warned repeatedly in recent years that an unbridled rise in food prices could trigger the very kind of explosion of citizen anger that's now threatening to topple the Egyptian government. Such anger is likely to rise elsewhere, too.

A large nation with lots of desert, Egypt must import more than half of its food supply. Since 2008, there's been sporadic unrest there as the cost of staples, from bread to fruits to vegetables, has gone up steadily.

One of those warning about the food prices was Hamdi Abdel-Azim, an economist and former president at the Sadat Academy for Social Sciences in Cairo.

"If the rise in food costs persists, there will be an explosion of popular anger against the government," he told the IPS Inter Press Service in mid-November.

A few weeks earlier, political opponents of President Hosni Mubarak had rallied to protest rising prices and to demand price ceilings on products to protect Egypt's poor.

Soaring food prices aren't the only reason that Egyptians took to the streets to try to topple their long-serving president. But they're a significant factor, and a steady surge in global commodity prices reminiscent of 2008 is sure to bring new battles over food security this year.

Food security isn't something that many Americans even consider.

Egyptians are sick of being ruled by a puppet government who really doesn't do much other than "just enough" to pacify the general population.

There is no easy answer to what is happening in Egypt, but there are definitely dire consequences if the country slips under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood. Chaos is the perfect driver for extremist groups to grab hold of power. Keep in mind that the Muslim Brotherhood is behind a lot of the rioting, funny how that works. All The Muslim Brotherhood would have to do when they come into power is call off the dogs, so to speak, and they'll look like heroes to the Egyptian people. Remember if it gets bad enough people will want ANYONE to stop it; whoever can stop it. If that becomes the case the world will definitely regret the poor decisions made on behalf of the international community.

Political decisions all too often result in kicking the can down the road indefinitely. When you leave office it's someone else's problem right?

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