The architects of US foreign policy must be having nightmares as the world they have tried to create is collapsing. Puppet regimes in North Africa and the Middle East that have shared in the plunder of the regions resources through their unbridled support of their friends in Washington are collapsing or in danger of doing so.
Wikileaks is driving them nuts either releasing information that exposes their phony diplomacy or threatening to do so. The information that Wikileaks claims to have on the banks has not yet been released and politicians throughout the US and around the world are having sleepless nights worrying about what might come next.
Another bombshell hit this weekend as Frank Wisner, the envoy Obama sent to talk to Mubarak said publicly that, "President Mubarak's continued leadership is critical: it's his opportunity to write his own legacy” Not only that, it turns out he works for a US law firm that represents Mubarak and his government. We blogged about these connections just last week.
Trying to contain the damage, the US State Dept. and Wisner are saying that the remarks were his personal views. Oh, really. That makes it all right then. Not even the most hypocritical of US politicians would say such things these days given the situation in Egypt with the US government’s role in keeping the ruthless dictator in power revealed. Writing in the Independent Uk, Robert Fisk who is in Cairo points out that, “It is inconceivable Hillary Clinton did not know of his (Wisner’s) employment by a company that works for the very dictator which Mr. Wisner now defends in the face of a massive democratic opposition in Egypt.” *
So let’s think about this for a moment; the US government has sent an envoy to Egypt to talk to Mubarak who it has propped up for 30 years, and who is now faced with a mass popular uprising that pretty much everyone in the world supports including world leaders, and it turns out that Mubarak is a client of the envoy's employers. As Robert Fisk puts it, “It is inconceivable Hillary Clinton did not know of his employment by a company that works for the very dictator which Mr. Wisner now defends in the face of a massive democratic opposition in Egypt.”
"Even in past examples where presidents have sent someone 'respected' or 'close' to a foreign leader in order to lubricate an exit," Mr. Noe adds, "the envoys in question were not actually paid by the leader they were supposed to squeeze out!" says Nicholas Noe, a US political analyst.
My, my, they really are in a mess in Washington.
No doubt some of Obama’s detractors will point to a deficiency in his administration but that’s not it. The Obama administration can hardly be any more inefficient or filled with fools, albeit, dangerous and violent ones, than the previous crowd that occupied the White House. The constantly changing positions and contradictory statements coming from the likes of Hilary Clinton and Obama himself, and now this embarrassing episode so late in the game, reflect the crisis US imperialism has been thrown in to by the uprisings of the workers and youth, the poor and disenfranchised and much tortured masses of the Arab world.
As I write I am nourished politically by such developments, by the rising up of the workers and youth of the Arab world. But a few months ago, you could have asked all the experts and academics that pontificate endlessly in the media about the politics of the world if such revolutionary upheavals would take place in this part of the world with the loyal US puppet Ben Ali losing his job and fleeing to Jeddah and not one would have dreamt it. Such is the nature of the revolutionary process. The conditions that brought about these developments exist everywhere including here in the US.
As we have said before, one lesson we can draw from this is that the working class will fight and that in order to win, we have to have organizations armed with a program and strategy that can overwhelm our enemies. The lack of such organization and leadership is the weak link, not the heroism or willingness to sacrifice on the part of the participants.
The sad thing here in the US is that the Labor hierarchy, those at the helm of the Labor movement, will not take advantage of a weakened opponent, even when this opponent is savaging the living standards and material well being of US workers, of their own members; in fact, they will do what they can to help US capitalism regain its foothold.
But here in the US we will also have our Tunisian moment. It won’t be an individual street vendor setting herself on fire in protest, but what is happening in Greece, Ireland, and in a more concentrated way, North Africa and the Middle East, will happen here. It’s important that we prepare for that moment rather than be caught off guard by it.
* Revealed: US envoy's business link to Egypt: Independent UK, 2-07-11
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