Why Doesn’t America Prevent the Brotherhood from Ruling Egypt and the Arabs?

For the fifth time in four months, and based on an invitation from the Muslim Brotherhood, American officials are visiting the headquarters of the Brotherhood in the al-Rawda neighborhood in Cairo. Last month Senator John Kerry, who is president of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and who ran as the Democratic Party candidate against George W. Bush in 2004, visited them. Yesterday William Burns, Deputy Secretary of State, visited the Brotherhood center in Cairo, which has become a pilgrimage site like Imam Khamenei’s office in Qom, which is a destination for anyone with a request.

John Kerry stated clearly, immediately after his meeting with the leadership of the Brotherhood, that their victory in the elections was not a surprise to him. That’s true — it wasn’t a surprise to anyone, owing to the political adolescence of all the other civil movements and their examination of the leadership; and also given the collective work and practical political experience of the Brotherhood, and their connection with the ideas of the 60s and Nasserite and Communist thought, which its spokesmen and originators have given up.

The important thing is that the West, and especially America, is not stopping the rise of the Islamists to power in Egypt and elsewhere, in other countries where the Arab Spring took place. The Spring is now turning into an Iranian and Taliban Fall and Winter, because there are only three things that are important to America, specifically, for its own benefit:

First: Guaranteeing the peace and security of Israel, and obligating Egypt to have a peace agreement with Israel. I, myself, fully support continued peace with Israel, because there is no excuse for taking Egypt back to ongoing wars which consumed Egyptian lives from 1948 to 1973 without accomplishing anything. In the end we regretted turning down the agreement to partition Palestine in 1948, which was the reason that the wars with Israel began. I don’t think the Brotherhood would object to keeping a cold peace with Israel; the real difficulty would be with the Salafis.

Second: Guaranteeing that oil continues to pour into the rest of the world from the Middle East at the agreed price. Many might be ignorant of the fact that America only supplies 22 percent of its oil needs from the Gulf countries and 22 percent from Africa. In 2011, for the first time in more than 60 years, oil exports exceeded imports (America imports crude oil and exports oil products after refining the oil). America is capable of covering its own oil needs if it wants to, but it prefers to keep its oil in the ground, in reserve for a time of need. America wants to keep the price of oil within its present range, and not have it go up or down much, because the biggest losers from current oil prices are European countries, Japan, China and Brazil, America’s main economic competitors. The American oil companies profit a lot from rising oil prices, up to a certain point, so that it doesn’t even begin to damage the American economy.

Third: Continued deals for exporting American weapons and planes, and strategic commodities like wheat, seeds and drugs to the Arab world, in order to guarantee weapons sales. There needs to be continued tension in the area. Tension between Israel and the Arabs increases Israeli arms and power. Increased tension between Iran and the Gulf countries increases weapons sales to both sides.

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America has other sound reasons, not connected to itself, for supporting an Islamist government, besides the three given above:

First: Observers have agreed that the elections were for the large part clean, and had a response never before seen in Egypt’s electoral history; so this must be democracy.

Second: America’s relationship with the Egyptian armed forces will remain strong, because the Egyptian army changed its strategic orientation from the Soviet Union to America, beginning in 1977. Egypt has received $1.3 billion a year in the form of military assistance, from 1977 to the present, conditional on the peace agreement with Israel. Most of Egypt’s weapons since that time have been American. Egypt needs America for spare parts, maintenance, training and ongoing refurbishing, and no sensible person would shut this door right now.

Third: America saw in Egypt’s revolution of January 25th a true popular revolution, and whether the Islamists ride on it or not, the revolution has become a fact, and has changed Egypt forever, whether for better or for worse. America is not very concerned about this; it concerns the Egyptians alone.

Fourth: The apprehension that Egyptian liberals and free people, as well as Egyptian and Arab Christians, have of Islamist rule doesn’t worry America much, and doesn’t affect its interests. America doesn’t care if all the women go back to wearing the niqab, or if drinking wine is forbidden, or if women and tourists are banned from the beaches, because this is something that only concerns Egyptians and Arabs, and nobody else.

Fifth: Islamist rule in Egypt and other Arab Spring countries may help America in its war against terrorism. It hopes that it will fragment al-Qaeda’s organization, because many of al-Qaeda’s leaders have returned to Egypt, Yemen and North Africa so that they can participate in government. In fact, we heard the Salafis cheering for bin Laden in Freedom Square on Kandahar Friday. Another indicator is the fact that America may soon begin negotiating with the Taliban, since the movement has opened an office in Qatar. We don’t hear much anymore about al-Qaida or al-Zawahiri, because they are with us in Baghdad, and they built Gaza, Tripoli, Tunis, Sana’a and Freedom Square. Who knows, maybe Ayman al-Zawahiri will nominate himself for the Egyptian presidency.

Sixth: America is betting on the Islamists dividing, and maybe fighting each other. We saw proof of that during the Egyptian elections, and particularly in the third stage. Most of the debate was between the Brotherhood and the Salafis, and the worst conflict was between the Sunnis and the Shia. We see the same thing on the Iraqi stage, and it will get worse after the American forces leave. Soon it will move to Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Seventh: There is an American proverb that says, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” It’s clear that America has failed to beat al-Qaida, the Taliban and Islamic extremism; in fact on the contrary, religious extremism has only grown stronger since George W. Bush announced the War on Terror after the crime of September 11, 2001.

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So, welcome to political Islam. It’s going to wear the cowboy hat this time!!