foreign policy from a foreign perspective

pankaj mishra, "where alaa al aswany is writing from." new york times magazine, 27 april 2008.

"really, americans need to keep more of a eye on what their government is doing in their name in places like egypt," [al aswany] said, "where it talks about democracy but supports dictatorships. the west is obsessed with terrorism, but if it supported democracy here, there would be no terrorism. they say, 'we want democracy in the middle east,' and then get scared when hamas or the muslim brotherhood wins. they don't understand that even if people in a democracy vote for the muslim brotherhood, they have the chance to see that these people in power are no good and then can vote them out. but if you have only dictatorship, there will be more terrorism."

i reminded him that this was the justification the bush administration used for the invasion of iraq. "ah, no," he retorted, "that was what we call 'moral cover.' in 1882 the british never said, 'we are going to occupy egypt and take its resources.' they said, 'we are here to protect the minorities.' you must cover your imperialism with something beautiful. no, what we want is to be left alone to build our own democracy. it is american support that maintains people like mubarak in power."