The Responsibility of the American Copts Towards the United States and Egypt in the Coming Few Months

Egypt is going through one of the "Intermediate Periods" she experiences periodically through her long history. This phenomenon can be clearly noticed if one looks especially at our ancient history, when periods of strength and prosperity are followed by weakness, internal chaos, and sometimes even foreign occupation. Intermediate  Periods usually followed long rules of inadequate pharaohs.

After an era of renaissance inaugurated by Mohammad Ali Pasha and his great successors, and we all know that not all of them were great, our country dipped into a  period when a flourishing society was ruined by mediocrity, and an emerging democracy was replaced by the dictatorship of semi illiterate low ranking soldiers, who incurred extensive damage and regression on every aspect of Egyptian life.

Egypt agonies were compounded by a universal post colonial failure that cast its shadow over the whole  Middle East. The vacuum created by the failures and regression made the region a fertile ground to spawn terrorists and interfere with the world peace. And as nature does not accept vacuum, the void had to be filled by the new unrivaled and threatened USA.

It was a matter of course therefore that the USA tries to influence the events in the region. President Dwight Eisenhower recognized the presence and dangers of a vacuum in the Middle East. But the unchallenged position of the USA after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the watershed terrorist aggression of September 11, 2001 thrust America in the region full strength and in a more urgent manner. The brittleness of the existing Middle Eastern failed regimes presented a challenge as well as an opportunity for the USA to recreate the region according to what it perceives as  modern and progressive, less threatening to the world stability and peace. This has always been the concern of the global dominating powers in the past, and continues to be in our times

Lacking the experience of the old colonialist powers, like Britain and France, and as a result of the changes that took place in our world since the decline of the old colonialism, the USA, in a way, is following a policy of "let us bring this falling house down, then think about how to rebuild it later." The great economic and military strengths of the only superpower gave it enough confidence that it can handle any emerging situation even if unexpected. The result of the American relative lack of experience and supreme self confidence can create unnecessary pain to  the already suffering nations of the region.

The news, referring to the establishment of contacts between the USA and such destructive and regressive forces as the Moslem Brothers, and that have been obviously already denied by both parties, are a perfect example of such a potential catastrophe. This, if true, indicates that the USA did not learn from the lessons of dealing with the blind sheikh who tried to blow up the World Trade Center before the last successful attempt, the Taliban who subdued and humiliated their own people, and even Ossama ben Laden himself.

Everyone knows and expects that Hosni Mobarak will be reelected to be the president of Egypt for five more years in October 2005. The Americans need not deal with other fanatics and suspects. It is unrealistic to think that the damage that affected all aspects of Egyptian life, especially politics, over the last fifty two years will be erased or reversed in five short years. Mobarak, because of his age and other factors, knows that this would be his last term in office. This may make him more amenable to  promote badly needed true political and social reforms. He may start doing what he could  and should have done in the past but refused to do. The Americans and Egypt would be much better off with a "new and improved" old Mobarak than the Islamists. This can be especially possible if the USA tightens the reigns and insists on better ways to spend the close to two billion dollars a year that we pay to support his regime.

It is our duty as American Copts to make sure that the Bush Administration is aware of these facts.

                                                  Sabry Fawzy Gohara, M.D., FRCSC