The Crime Of Introspection

About Last Week…

In the past week it has become increasingly clear that the protests are about more than simply an amateur hate film produced by a collection of bigots. There is a latent anti-Western sentiment that persists in the Middle East, regardless of the events of the Arab Spring. This sentiment is important and bears some serious investigation and discussion that I currently have yet to encounter on any popular media outlet.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough explained the recent images coming out of the Middle East to his viewers this morning, “You know why they hate us? I’ve been talking to intelligence people all weekend and you know what they said? They hate us because of their religion. They hate us because of their culture and because of peer pressure.” He went on to re-emphasize the point with an academic eloquence and wisdom, “They hate us because they hate us.”

Much has been made of America’s ostensible sainthood in the region in the face of “ungrateful” Arabs. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton responding to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens said, “Today, many Americans are asking—indeed, I asked myself—how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we saved from destruction?” CNN ran a headline that bizarrely asked, “Was the Arab Spring Worth It?” Additionally, Libertarian Presidential candidate Gary Johnson asked in The Huffington Post, “As despicable as he was, would our ambassador and three other dedicated public servants have been in killed in a Gaddafi-controlled Libya? Are we safer today… after killing Gaddafi? Clearly not.”

Recently, some American politicians (Johnson is one of them) have called on ending all foreign aid to the affected countries, notably in the case of Egypt, the second largest recipient of such aid. But we must understand that Egypt has been receiving this large sum of aid for decades; two years ago the Mubarak regime received the funds before President Hosni Mubarak was ousted by the Egyptian people as a corrupt, brutal dictator. Perhaps Americans shaking their heads in disbelief and outrage are not conscious of this history, but you can be sure that Egyptians most certainly are.

For decades Egyptians lived in fear of their government. Protests and criticism directed at the Mubarak regime was often met with police batons, indefinite detention, and in other cases outright murder. Two years ago Egyptians would not have been able to march on the US embassy demanding for the end of American support for Mubarak and others like him.  For decades America subsidized such a regime, and now that regime is gone.

This type of relationship is typical of most regimes in the region, particularly so with respect to the emerging governments of the Arab Spring. Yemen’s regime has had little more than a cosmetic makeover; for the past few years, Qaddafi had started down the path of reconciliation with Western powers and Tunisian strongmen had good relations with the US for decades.

What is more, the disparaging remarks aimed at the “blossoms of the Arab Spring” take a very narrow view. Only four countries thus far have experienced a change in leadership since January 2011. These protests go beyond the borders of these few countries. Thousands are protesting in Bahrain where the protesters of the Arab Spring were crushed by their government with the support of the United States and its surrogate in Saudi Arabia. I have yet to hear anyone ask the question “Is our support of autocracy in Bahrain worth it?” Or better yet: “Is our support of any autocracy worth it?”

Imagine that you had lived your entire life fearing your government. I mean really fearing your government. For most reasonable Americans the only fear they have of their government is stirred up by the brutal injustice of a speeding. Imagine being terrified that criticizing your government might result in torture, detention, or death. What kind of feelings do you think you would have about the benefactor that distributes billions of dollars in support for your government and its policies? When your tyrant—the one you’ve lived in fear of, the one your parents and grandparents have lived in fear of—finally begins to crumble, the benefactor vanishes; and when that tyrant is gone completely the benefactor reappears and says, “You’re welcome.” How do you suspect you would feel about this benefactor?

The United States has operated in the Middle East through brutal surrogates who have exercised their power in a manner completely anathema to so-called “American values” with the full consent of the American government. When these tyrants fall, no matter what role we’ve had for the past year, we cannot expect a warm, shortsighted embrace. This is especially the case while US support for human rights violators and autocracies in the region persists.

A Note About Apologies

Recently Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, condemned Barack Obama’s administration for apologizing for America and "America's values.” Romney’s criticism came during the latest crisis in U.S. foreign policy as thousands of Muslims protested—and in some cases breached—U.S. embassies in the Middle East.  Leaving aside the fact that the Obama administration made no apology whatsoever, Romney’s chants decrying Obama’s past and present “apologies” should garner some additional attention.

When I first heard Romney make the charge, I did what I imagine most reasonable people did: I dismissed the comments as the latest in the Romney’s “post-factual” campaign and angrily affirmed “there was no apology!” I saw this same reaction from various Obama surrogates, as if—for some reason—we are all appalled by the notion.

Granted, in the case of the past week, there is little for the Obama administration to apologize for. However, this notion goes back some time. Romney and his surrogates have accused Obama of going on an international “apology tour” as far back as the Republican primary. Various factcheckers have found no evidence of any apology issued by the Obama administration.

But really:  What’s so wrong with apologizing? When did this basic concept of admitting guilt and expressing regret become so politically toxic?

Would it really be so bad for an American politician to apologize for wrongs committed in the name of US foreign policy? Would it be so unthinkable, so repugnant that an American politician might apologize for the grossly mismanaged war of choice in Iraq? The blunders committed in the aftermath of the invasion and their grisly consequences are surely not up for debate at this point. Would it be so unthinkable to express regret about overthrowing a democratically elected government in Iran in 1953? Surely we can all agree that Muhammad Mossadeq’s government would be preferable to the Iranian regime we know today.

Do Americans really believe that we are infallible? The only way forward, toward new relations in the Middle East, requires that we acknowledge our past. A moral nation—the kind that I believe America can be, the kind that I believe the American people it want to be—will not be able to acknowledge such a past without regret and remorse. If we truly wish to rebuild our reputation in the Middle East, apology will be necessary, both for our mistakes and our misdeeds.