On US policy and despots

A friend recently asked me about how Egyptians would regard Hillary Clinton's comments about Tunisia ridding itself of a despot. I responded as follows:

Egyptians, and most people that have interaction with American foreign policy would regard her speech as duplicitous and hypocritical. For Tunisia, its oppressive regime received applaud for economic growth and stability until that regime fell down. A similar reaction from France, which said it started monitoring transfers of money from Ben Ali's family after it fell, but did not prior to that, despite widespread knowledge of despotic nepotism.

Meanwhile there is a conspicuous absence [in the US media and political establishment] of what actually triggered the revolution, which resulted from economic disparities. And even though looting occurred primarily from those within the regime, the White House spokesman denounced violence as an expression of popular will. (bear in mind that personally I'm a pacifist, so I'm against violence, but I'm pointing out that he intentionally misrepresented the events).

As for Egypt, well, it's been America greatest recipient of aid in the last 30 years with the exception of Israel. And all Egyptians know that. So they see America as the main sponsor of their dictatorship, of which America is barely critical. See the most recent sham parliamentary elections for one of many references to that.

While I would agree with the statement that most of the regimes in the region are oppressive at best, when such criticism comes from an outside power it's rather condescending.

The American official policy is to support friendly dictatorships. This may seem conspiratorial–but is actually a stated policy. Unfortunately such a statement plays into the stereotypes of the Gulf, Levant, North Africa and western Asia (the Western strategic zone commonly referred to as the Middle East) while ignoring that such regimes are supported all over the world from Guatemala and Nicaragua, to Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan and to the Philippines.

Tunisia is an interesting case. While the regime was oppressive, particularly on freedom of expression, it also had a progressive legal system with the strong personal status laws for women. I'm not positive how that's played into the current events, but it seems that these institutions coupled with a strong education system helped set the foundation for the revolution. Contrasting with Egypt, despite its billions of US aid, it has regressive laws and a failed education system.