There has been enough going on at home and in Syria for me to have neglected the situation in Egypt, but the beginning of former President Morsi's trial is reason enough to comment on the turbulence there, and how deplorable the inaction of the United States and our allies has been.
Mohammed Morsi, lest we forget, was the democratically elected President of Egypt who was voted into office following the toppling of Hosni Mubarek. The head of the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi's brief tenure as president was largely ineffective, and arguably divisive. But more importantly, his election was legitimate. Democracies elect divisive and ineffective politicians all the time - some would argue our current President is one of them, and most who would argue otherwise would probably say that his predecessor was one of them - but we have methods other than coups for addressing their inadequacies.
The deplorable failure to condemn the coup of President Morsi - he won a legitimate election! - was a mistake on the part of the United States. I'm not in love with the Muslim Brotherhood, and there are many who are probably more out of love with the Brotherhood than I am, but democracy means the people elect who they elect and then the military stays out of the way. Now President Morsi is on trial for "inciting murder," and has rightly declared that trial to be illegitimate. It would be nice if the United States would at least say something to the effect of "coups are bad even when they depose someone we don't like."
It's exactly this kind of short-sighted foreign policy that has made America the target for the ire of much of the world, and that ire has become increasingly violent, especially when emanating from the Muslim world. If we are going to stand up for democracy, we need to stand up for democracy, even when the democratically elected leaders of a particular country aren't the ones we would have chosen. That's kind of the point, right, self-determination? Morsi wasn't doing a good job anyhow, he wasn't going to be re-elected, he may even have been removed from office through means other than a coup, but the United Sates looks like the hypocrites we are in this case when we refuse to even condemn the coup of a democratically elected leader while pretending to espouse democracy.
What's the next would-be jihadi to think next time he hears us preaching about democratic values? I'm willing to be he remembers Mohamed Morsi's forcible removal from office and subsequent illegitimate trial...
I've been advocating for intervention in Syria for months based on the reasoning that it is in the best interest of the United States to consistently stand up for human and civil rights even when the best course of action is a difficult or not entirely clear. In the short run, it's easy to watch the bloodshed in Syria and do nothing, or to sit back idly and tacitly support a military dictatorship in Egypt that seems more aligned with US interests than a president representing the Muslim Brotherhood. But in the long-term both of those stances are wrong and counterproductive to our well-being, stability, and national defense, not to mention they're morally indefensible in the short-term even if they niftily seem to be politically easy solutions.
When President Obama was first running for office one of my biggest concerns about a potential President Obama was that he would be too soft on foreign policy. Over the first few years of his presidency those fears seem to have been misplaced; Obama deftly handled the situation in Libya - if not its aftermath, and finally got bin Laden while winding down our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. But if Obama was at first tough and spot on, he has now been timid and afraid to stand up for American values. There are plenty of Americans who don't like Obama, but only a few crazy ones talk about secession. So what gives us the right to condone a coup when we don't like the elected head of state from another country? If Obama's rationale for intervention in Libya was to stop a slaughter - which he did - what then is his reason for not stopping a slaughter in Syria that has been going on for three years?
American foreign policy must be rooted in the morals and values that sustain our country if we are to eliminate threats to our national security by promoting a peaceful and stable world. Short-term and politically-convenient bandaid solutions or non-actions do little to help us today and actually hurt us tomorrow. If you often find yourself asking "why are we allied with a feudal monarchy in Saudi Arabia, a country which produced many of the 9/11 hijackers," I think you're asking the right type of questions. Our short-sightedenss has already hurt us in a profound way. We'd be wise not to make the same mistake again. Alas, the trial of Mohamed Morsi continues, and our illegitimacy is on full display.
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