International Affairs

The upheaval in Egypt is politically challenging for the United States in countless ways, none more than so than the threat to the alliance Egypt has maintained with Israel for 30 years. That often tense but consistent peace has been central to cooperation between the Israelis and the Palestinians and to preserving broader stability throughout the Middle East.

Domestic politics in the United States appears to be on hold, as no partisan divide has emerged with regard to the Obama administration’s handling of the crisis in Egypt. Republicans have been largely silent or have agreed thus far with statements made by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the protests, the tenure of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and the transition that is clearly imminent.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak took to the airwaves to publicly state he will not seek the office of the presidency anymore, thus ending over three decades of rule. There is a reason Mubarak enjoyed such a lengthy tenure, and he has the United States to thank in some small measure.
 
Let’s not kid ourselves. It was in our national interest to have Mubarak in power. His government, no matter how flawed and sometimes oppressive, was predictable, which is a rare commodity in the Middle East. In many respects, Egypt was an oasis of calm in an otherwise tumultuous part of the world. And we have Mubarak to thank, in part, for that relative peace.

What stood out in your mind as you witnessed the weekend’s events in Egypt? How the entire country stood on the edge of anarchy, largely because its people had been denied basic conditions, treatment and rights to redress their grievances by a heavy-handed president.

I don’t pen this blog to challenge Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s behavior through his three decades in power. His conduct, and the people’s response to it, are by now well-documented.

But the situation in Egypt stands as a stark reminder of the basic tenets we as Americans have grown perhaps accustomed to, and we would do well to remind ourselves that the freedoms we enjoy are derived through daily struggles and challenges.

At last, the Obama administration has begun to tighten the screws on President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, has just served notice that American aid — including military assistance — will depend on the “concrete reforms” of the Egyptian government. Gibbs spoke at the end of a tumultuous day that saw unprecedented mass protests by Egyptians demanding the removal of Mubarak and his family viciously put down by security forces until the army was brought out onto the streets.

Revolution swept Europe in 1848.

Stoked by nationalism and poverty, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Ireland and the vast reaches of the Hapsburg Empire all convulsed in tumult.

The bourgeoisie and peasant classes, angered by the ruling classes that seemed to care more for their own personal well-being than the well-being of their peoples, rose up and said enough is enough.

The Arab world is in flames. The Palestinian Papers have created a sensation in the Middle East. And what has President Obama got to say about it? “And tonight, let us be clear: The United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia, and supports the democratic aspirations of all people.”

Those were his timid words referring to the latest dramatic events in the Middle East since the sudden death of the regime of the Tunisian dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. There may be hope but certainly no audacity in his careful wording, which revealed the administration’s deep unease with the pro-democracy protests in Egypt, a key U.S. ally in the region.

“The Master said: ‘Stupid and yet desirous of doing things his own way; ignoble and yet desirous of taking himself as sole authority; born in today’s world, yet reverting to the Tao that has come down to us from antiquity — People like this will bring calamity on themselves.’ ” — Doctrine of the Mean, Zhu Xi

I’m delighted that Tiger Mom Amy Chua brings “Chinese values” — a phrase that brings to mind a big sign on I-93 when it swung into Boston before the Big Dig tunnel: “Chinese Church” — to the West. But what is more impressive, in my opinion, are the Chinese agricultural workers who worked California’s Central Valley during the Great Depression, some without pay: “We were lucky,” an elderly Chinese woman said recently. “We had ducks and chickens to eat while others had nothing.” My Irish relatives are still complaining about the potato famine.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has just left Chicago, where I live, and his presence here — where he received a more unadulterated enthusiastic welcome, led by China’s chief cheerleader Mayor Richard Daley, than he received in Washington — got me thinking about the main event: his visit to D.C.

I loved that the Obamas’ cherished daughters, Malia and Sasha, were present for some of the festivities, and that Sasha later used President Hu to test her Chinese language skills.

The Chinese president, Hu Jintao, arrives in Washington today for a red-carpet welcome as his country’s Nobel Peace Prize winner languishes in jail.

It is time for President Obama to stand up to China over its shameful human-rights record. Last week the Obama administration was talking up its human-rights stance and raising expectations that the president would be more demanding. He met personally with five Chinese human-rights advocates for an hour at the White House, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a speech at the State Department that the U.S. would continue to defend Chinese bloggers, political activists and religious believers persecuted for challenging the ruling party dogma.

In his great small book of the early 20th century, The Temptation of the West, Andre Malraux proposed that the question of the century would be: How will the Chinese adapt to individualism? The question we might ask today as President Hu Jintao visits the United States is, how will the West adapt to the rise of China? So far, I am afraid, not very well. Western people are dreaming now of tigers and dragons. Bad dreams.

Possibly only few can make the journey across the Pacific. Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier, uncomfortable in Seattle with the Hindu waitress at the coffee shop, may long for the Irish charm and camaraderie of the “Cheers” bar in Boston. But those who will be successful in this American journey will travel the path west with him because America’s future faces across the Pacific.