US supported Islamists

in KSA and Pakistan. So why not in Egypt? Noam Chomsky makes a good point:

'A common refrain among pundits is that fear of radical Islam requires (reluctant) opposition to democracy on pragmatic grounds. While not without some merit, the formulation is misleading. The general threat has always been independence. The US and its allies have regularly supported radical Islamists, sometimes to prevent the threat of secular nationalism.

A familiar example is Saudi Arabia, the ideological centre of radical Islam (and of Islamic terror). Another in a long list is Zia ul-Haq, the most brutal of Pakistan's dictators and President Reagan's favorite, who carried out a programme of radical Islamisation (with Saudi funding).

"The traditional argument put forward in and out of the Arab world is that there is nothing wrong, everything is under control," says Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian official and now director of Middle East research for the Carnegie Endowment. "With this line of thinking, entrenched forces argue that opponents and outsiders calling for reform are exaggerating the conditions on the ground." '

Reagan could have brokered a peace

between Palestine and Israel. Mubarak urged him in 1985! What happened to Mubarak's urging? It fizzled out, it seems.

Mubarak Urges Reagan to Push Mideast Peace Effort
September 24, 1985|RUDY ABRAMSON | Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told President Reagan on Monday that he thinks time is wasting in Mideast peace efforts, and he expressed hope that the United States will step up the pressure to push forward an initiative that has languished since February.

At an hourlong White House meeting with Reagan, Mubarak stressed that the Palestine Liberation Organization has "implicitly" accepted the U.S. conditions for joining any peace talks, according to a senior Administration official who took part in the session. The conditions include recognition of Israel's right to exist and acceptance of two key United Nations' resolutions.'

Reagan believed Saddam would be "reliable partner"

'Declassified U.S. government documents show that while Saddam Hussein was gassing Iraqi Kurds, the U.S. opposed punishing Iraq with a trade embargo because it was cultivating Iraq as an ally against Iran and as a market for U.S. farm exports.

According to Peter Galbraith, then an idealistic Senate staffer determined to stop Hussein from committing genocide, the Reagan administration "got carried away with their own propaganda. They began to believe that Saddam Hussein could be a reliable partner." '