The US seems to be losing allies with her militant foreign policies. The well attended Non Aligned Movement held in Tehran Iran included US protégé Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi, who apparently flouted pressures from the Washington.
Writes Eric Margolis at the lewrockwell.com,
To Washington’s further annoyance, Egypt’s new president, Mohammed Morsi, shrugged off threats of a cut in US aid and flew to Tehran. Under the 30-year Mubarak dictatorship, Egypt had been a bulwark against Iran. But no more. The increasingly assertive, independent Morsi made clear that Egypt would follow its own foreign policy interests rather than those of the US and Israel, as in the past.
Morsi has surprised just about everyone. When he stumbled into power earlier this year he was regarded as a plodding nobody, selected by the all-powerful military to do its bidding and not make trouble. The Muslim Brotherhood leader, a former space engineer, threw off his cloak of humility and quickly proceeded to muzzle Egypt’s bullying US-backed military, the key to US domination of Egypt for the past 40 years.
How Morsi pulled this off without facing a military coup remains a mystery. But he certainly had the backing of most Egyptians. It took Turkey’s Islamist Lite government a decade to push the swaggering generals back to their barracks and bring real democracy.
The Egyptian leader stunned everyone by openly blasting the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, calling for its replacement by an elected, democratic government. Egyptian intervention in the bloody Syrian conflict may help pave a way to a peaceful settlement. It could also rekindle ancient Egyptian-Syrian rivalry for leadership of the Arab world.
In spite of issuing dulcet banalities about Egypt’s turn to democracy, Washington is extremely unhappy with Egypt’s newly elected government. Egypt will no longer be a discreet defender and ally of Israel, as under Mubarak, but a rival power that genuinely demands a Palestinian state and sees no reason to confront Iran or other US foes.
The US is responding to Egypt’s newfound independence by muttering about cuts to its annual $1.3 billion donations to Egypt’s military and millions more in secret payments. However, the Saudis and Gulf Arabs are lending cash-strapped Cairo $3 billion and the US-run IMF another $4.8 billion in loans. Interestingly, President Morsi just visited China where he received pledges of aid.
In past years, most non-aligned conferences, whose objective was to find a middle way between the West and Soviet Empire, produced only hot air, often quite anti-American. As America’s world power declines after the loss of two wars and deep recession, the NAM meeting in Tehran maybe a step, albeit small, towards moving away from today’s unipolar world towards a more balanced, equitable international system.
Egypt’s supposed disobedience and the success of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has very important implications
One, the US seems to be losing geopolitical capital.
The motivation by incumbent political class to stir up conflicts around the world has been getting the opposite response than intended by Washington.
Part of the militant imperial policies has been meant to divert public’s attention from the steepening deterioration of the domestic fiscal and economic conditions. Part of these has been designed to justify and protect the businesses interests of the military industrial complex and of the imperial or geopolitical ambitions of neoconservatives.
Yet the apparent success of the NAM also exhibits of the implied impact of globalization, where trade rather than war have become the key domestic agenda for many, if not most, of developing countries. (For instance Russia became the 156th member of World Trade Organization last August 22)
Second, the erosion of the imperial status, through the prospective realignment of geopolitical power or “towards a more balanced, equitable international system”, extrapolates to the decline of the US dollar standard.
Current policies of inflationism embraced by the US along with her Western peers, which radically conflicts with globalization, will compel more developing countries to cooperate as regional or as specific nation trading blocs than depend on the US. Thus realignments will not just be within the context of geopolitics, but also in the currency spectrum.
The increasingly desperate political-economic power cabals working behind the scene may force the issue by pushing the Washington to go to war with either Syria or Iran. But such wars will not do away with the deepening trend towards economic, financial, political and moral bankruptcy the US has been challenged with. Instead wars will continue to nibble away at the social fabric and the political economic foundations of the US.
As a side note, interestingly China pushes forward with the Non Aligned Movement plank
At the Xinhua, Ma Zhaoxu, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs was quoted, (bold emphasis mine)
Non- aligned movement is an important platform for developing countries to move forward together. China supports the non-aligned movement for its positive role played in international affairs. China and other developing countries share similar histories, and face the common task of keeping world peace and boosting development. China will work together with the members of non-aligned movement to push the international order in a more fair and rational direction. China's attendance at the NAM summit also delivers an important message that China will always deepen traditional friendships and expand mutually beneficial cooperation, as well as maintain common interests with other developing countries.
More signs of China’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde relationship with ASEAN.
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