Uprisings in Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt -- America Is Paying the Price for Supporting Corrupt Dictatorships in the Muslim World | | AlterNet

27.1.11

Tomdispatch.com
/ By
Juan Cole - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently took a four-day tour of the Middle East, at each stop telling various allies and enemies, in classic American fashion, what they must do. And yet as she spoke, events in Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, and even Egypt seemed to spin ever more out of American control. Meanwhile, the regime in Tunisia, one of the autocratic and repressive states Washington has been supporting for years even as it prattles on about “democracy” and “human rights,” began to crumble.

In Doha, Qatar, in front of an elite audience peppered with officials from the region, Clinton suddenly issued a warning to Arab leaders that people had “grown tired of corrupt institutions and a stagnant political order” and that “in too many ways, the region’s foundations are sinking into the sand.” With Tunisia boiling over and food riots in Algeria and Jordan, she insisted that it was time for America’s allies to mend their ways and open themselves to “reform.” A New York Times report, typical of coverage here, described her talk as a “scalding critique” which also “suggested a frustration that the Obama administration’s message to the Arab world had not gotten through.”

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