On the 10th anniversary of Egypt's 2013 coup, which saw General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi overthrow the country's first democratically elected president, we speak with author Shadi Hamid about Lessons from the Arab Spring , which includes details about Obama's situation. The leadership helped suppress democratic uprisings in the Middle East. "Washington, and Obama in particular, gave the green light for the Egyptian military to continue operating," Hamid said. The United States has refused to declare a coup or determine the consequences, while continuing to provide billions of dollars in foreign aid to the junta that still controls the military. The country.
Transcript
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Amy Goodman: Democracy Now! , democracynow.org, War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman and we host today's show looking back at the 10th anniversary of the Egyptian coup in 2013, when General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi overthrew the democratically elected first president of Egypt and then led the Overthrew the leader of the Islamic Brotherhood government. To confuse the mind.
"Lessons from the Arab Spring" is the title of a new column by Shadi Hamid, director of the Brookings Institution and author of "The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of Ideas."
Welcome to Democracy! It was a pleasure to be with you. Can you start by telling us a little bit about America as we know it now, specifically President Obama's role in responding to the withdrawal?
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Shadi Hamid: Yes. goodbye, mom. Thank you for being with me.
Washington is therefore directly affected. I think until recently, certainly after the takeover a decade ago, people thought America was taken by surprise, that the Obama administration wanted to do the right thing but didn't know how to do it. There's no power, and this ideological innocence in America, you know, "Oh, what are we going to do? We're the most powerful in the world." July 3, 2013. You know, for my articles and my edited book, "Democracy Matters," where I interviewed 30 former and current U.S. presidents, can I find some great moments in the final days? This is not a good photo.
I want to make it clear that Washington - and Obama in particular - gave the green light for the Egyptian military to go ahead with the coup. We can do more to prevent it. We can threaten to withhold aid before the coup takes place. And even after the attack, there is an opportunity to call it a pirate and cut off aid, which is what US law means. There is a legal obligation to limit assistance in operations where the military plays a significant role. Of course, instead of calling it a coup, President Obama walked away or avoided the event.
So, there's a lot of different things, you know, when you put them all together, you can't say America doesn't know what's going on. Some officials—notably John Kerry—were more than happy about the withdrawal. There was also a memorable speech in which he said Abdel Fattah al-Sisi "saved democracy". He made the remarks after two riots by Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, your work is really interesting. I just want to read it because it tells people how the government works. You wrote, "A White House adviser guided me through the negotiations."
He said, "I'm in, it's hot, there's trouble, etc., and there's clear legal text that says 'declare a coup, reduce Aid to the Army'." , we don't care about the first one because he's a polite dissenter who might say it's not a coup...
"So, like, 'When are we going to read this?' That's The reason I came in, hopefully that's what it's all about. And then Obama was the only, only time I can remember in all the years I've worked for him, and he came... I'm absolutely amazed, and there are a lot of others. And the content of the conversation has changed a lot.
I mean, that's interesting. I don't know if you'd like to reveal now who told you that. But please explain what that means and why you think Obama thinks that and means it. Mine Meaning, we're talking about thousands of people incarcerated, political prisoners.
SHADI HAMID: Well, it's worth emphasizing how bad this is for the Obama legacy. I saw the coup on the day the Arab Spring ended. After that, there was no hope of going back. I mean, Egypt is the most populous country in the region. Egypt set the tone. So it's not a small thing. This makes sense. I hope people remember it that way.
And those words, I'm still amazed when I hear you read it to me. I mean, I can't say who he is because that's not why this guy wants to be famous. But there are other things.
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