Forsaking Friends for Friendly Enemies

The Great Communicator, whose soaring oratory bought him a presidency and a Nobel Peace Prize, should be reflecting on the outcomes of his initiatives, but in all likelihood nothing could be further from his mind. Mostly because it seems by now evident that this very special man is so self-assured and confident in his choices of action/inaction that few disconcerting thoughts of poorly managed decisions break the comfort of his pride in his infallibility.

He set out to make America proud of itself once again, and of assuring its traditional friends that his country would always be there to back them up. And, he went out of his way to reach out to the single most threatening collective movement abroad today against democracy and the values of the West, that his country harboured no wish to assert itself on Islam's rights and priorities.

He took the time and the trouble to travel to the most populous and influential Arab country of the Middle East to deliver a conciliatory speech of friendship and commitment. And the Middle East sighed and leaned back to wait for the future. The collective psyche no doubt felt relieved that they would not be held responsible for the attacks of September 9, 2001; it was not they but crazed jihadis, after all, and Islam signifies peace.


The Egyptian-U.S. alliance was strong and supportive of a region of peace. But this president who sought to undo everything his immediate predecessor had done on the world stage, went about doing just that. Traditional allies in the geography consisted mostly of Sunni-majority countries simply because Sunni Muslims are in the majority there as they are world-wide. Shia Iran, to whom Mr. Obama held out an open palm, hit back with a closed fist.

There is something extremely peculiar about a man of immense power who appears attracted to those who reject him and what he stands for, preferring to ignore and sideline those who support and admire him, until they no longer support and admire him, and those who detest him become those with whom he sees the practical value of aligning himself with.

And so, Egypt has had its traditional financial aid cut back because the majority of Egyptians spurned a failed Muslim Brotherhood government. Which President Obama looked upon, aghast.

And the Islamic Republic of Iran which has tested the patience of the IAEA, the United Nations, NATO, and the Sunni-led Middle East beyond endurance with its stolid determination to attain for itself the glory of a nuclear-weapon arsenal, and which studiously oppresses its people, and commits its scarce treasury under sanctions to supporting terrorism, has somehow achieved the approval of the despised "Satan" of America.

Perhaps through a certain consanguinity relating to each being steadfastly devoted to capital punishment; state-sanctioned murder. That both represent extremely religious communities each in their own way, and do so in a most religiously conservative manner may represent yet another attraction, one-way that it is.

The American public is largely silent on their president's growing relations with Iran, while the Iranian public is quite exuberant over its "Death to America!" conviction.

Lacking sympathy and direction, let alone the once-conventional support from the United States, official Egypt is now turning its attention back to its historical relationship with Russia, and Russia is happily reciprocating, finding in itself huge support for the removal of an Islamist administration, welcoming the kind of administration it can understand, that of a military dimension, reflective of its own.

As for the U.S. refraining from fully supporting Egypt financially, several other Middle East nations equally disappointed at America's cavalier dispensing of traditional relations for friendly ones with their enemy, have stepped into the breach. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are more than prepared to be generous with their stupendous oil treasuries, allocating to Egypt more than was lost through Obama's disinterest.

"Whether el-Sissi is elected president or any other, the Gulf will not (leave) Egypt in the middle of the road and will protect it from U.S. pressures and any other pressures, like those from Turkey or any other Arab countries."
Mustafa al-Ani, Security and Defence Studies, Gulf Research Center