{"id":5583,"date":"2012-02-04T19:52:37","date_gmt":"2012-02-05T02:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=5583"},"modified":"2012-02-04T21:30:44","modified_gmt":"2012-02-05T04:30:44","slug":"obama-takes-a-bow-and-worlds-weapons-pimp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=5583","title":{"rendered":"Obama takes a Bow as Worlds Weapons Pimp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Carothers is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of the report \u201cDemocracy Promotion Under Obama: Revitalization or Retreat?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s bow to Mideast monarchs<\/strong>
\nBy Thomas Carothers – 04 February, 2012 – Washington Post<\/p>\n

Just after the first anniversary of the onset of the Arab Spring, the Obama administration announced in December an enormous arms sale to Saudi Arabia, with a price tag greater than the annual gross domestic product of more than half the countries in the world. The administration hailed the sale as a \u201chistoric achievement\u201d that \u201creinforces the strong and enduring relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.\u201d The close juxtaposition of the anniversary and the apparent repair of the temporary rough patch in U.S.-Saudi relations highlights crucial overlooked realities about the Arab Spring and the U.S. response.<\/p>\n

Although accounts of the Arab Spring often refer to a wave of political change washing across the Middle East, the reality is otherwise. The wave has bisected the region, swamping one half while leaving the other barely damp. Governments in the majority of the region\u2019s republics, namely Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen, have been toppled or have faced serious domestic siege. In startling contrast, however, all of the region\u2019s monarchies appear secure, with the possible exception of Bahrain. Most have enough oil money to keep their citizens well off, and some have a special religious legitimacy.<\/p>\n

We should keep in mind that the various autocrats in the region who fell from power last year also looked to be well-entrenched, for all sorts of solid and frequently elaborated reasons, right up until the moment they no longer were. In this time of political surprises, which often stem from sudden, roiling popular protests, betting on reliable autocrats is more perilous than ever.<\/p>\n

President Obama says that he recognizes this reality. He declared in May that \u201cafter decades of accepting the world as it is in the region, we have a chance to pursue the world as it should be\u201d and that it will be \u201cthe policy of the United States to promote reform across the region.\u201d And it is true that where political upheaval has hit, the United States has usually backed democratic change, sometimes actively, as in Libya; sometimes hesitantly, as in Egypt. But where autocratic stability continues to reign, the administration sticks to the decades-old U.S. policy of uncritical support for friendly dictators who are helpful on matters of security and economics. <\/p>\n

When the government of Bahrain cracked down harshly on the massive protest movement within its borders last spring, the administration basically folded. The United States was unwilling to risk jeopardizing the convenient Persian Gulf home of the U.S. Navy\u2019s Fifth Fleet for the sake of its commitment to Arab democracy. Saudi Arabia\u2019s military participation in Bahrain\u2019s crackdown and its steadfast opposition to even a glimmer of liberalization within its own borders has not deterred the administration from enthusiastically reaffirming the intimacy of U.S.-Saudi ties. Consider also that, despite having taken no serious steps toward democratic reform in response to popular demands for change, Jordan\u2019s King Abdullah has received only praise and aid from Washington. ...more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Thomas Carothers is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of the report \u201cDemocracy Promotion Under Obama: Revitalization or Retreat?\u201d Washington\u2019s bow to Mideast monarchs By Thomas Carothers – 04 February, 2012 – Washington Post Just after the first anniversary of the onset of the Arab Spring, the more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1498],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5583"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5588,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583\/revisions\/5588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}