Should the U.S. 'Unfriend' Hosni Mubarak?

Newspapers across the country published a political cartoon by Signe Wilkinson today that showed a portrait of Uncle Sam looking at a computer screen with a picture of him posing chummily with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Facebook. The avuncular American icon appears trepidatious as he attempts to muster the courage to click the "Unfriend" key on his Egyptian ally. More profound than funny, that is the precise dilemma in which President Barack Obama finds himself in today.

The United States has a long history of friending dictators who are strategically useful to us and turning a blind eye to their corrupt and cruel practices in their own country. This peculiar definition of friendship reminds me of a cousin whose close friend was having an affair with a married man. I asked my cousin "Doesn't that affect your desire to be friends with her?" and she replied. "Not really. She's always been a very good friend to me."

Friendships that are based on personal utility are typically headed for trouble. Even if that person never harms or betrays you, at some point the wrong-doer's deeds may spill over into your life, and you will have to make a moral decision to "unfriend' that person or become a hateful-and hated-hypocrite. That Egyptian protesters are not burning American flags or effigies of our president is miraculous given the billions of dollars we have poured into Mubarak's corrupt government over the years.

But the rage toward Mubarak could be channeled toward the U.S. any minute now. Flash back to 1979 to the Iranian revolution when our "friend," the Shah of Iran, was tossed out by revolutionaries who blamed the United States as much as their exiled leader for some of the cruel acts performed by Savak, the Shah's secret police force which was infamous for torturing political dissidents. Just as the Iranian hostage crisis contributed to the undoing of President Jimmy Carter, some pundits suggest that Egypt could be Obama's Iran.

One of George Bush's reasons as to why he invaded Iraq (after it turned out there were no WMDs after all) was to spread democracy throughout the Middle East by example. So it is ironic that when the Egyptian populace tries to create a democratic government, we have found ourselves on the side of the dictator. To the United States' credit, we have been lobbying Mubarak to reform his government, but Mubarak has long suffered from America-deafness, a malady similar to the mother-deafness of teenagers who stop hearing their mothers' pleas to clean their room.

Today the United States finds itself in the uncomfortable position of no longer being able to just pay lip service to lobbying for democratic reform in Egypt, as Uncle Sam metaphorically tiptoes on a thin carpet of sand paper. The one thing that is certain is that if Uncle Sam does not unfriend his chum Mubarak, it is doubtful the Egyptian ruler's inevitable replacement will be sending him a friend request.

Update: Shortly after this article was published, Mubarak announced on Egyptian state TV he would not run for re-election, a decision that coincidentally had nothing to do with the protesters, or so he said. "With all honesty and without looking at this particular situation . . . I was not intent on standing for the next elections because I have spent enough time in serving Egypt," he was reported as saying on CNN. Whether a September exit is soon enough for disgruntled Egyptians is doubtful, and the United States may still be forced to press that "Unfriend" button.

Sources:
Jonathan Wright, "Mubarak's Disconnect from Egyptians May Seal Fate," Reuters
John Barry, "Watching Torture: A Reporter's Reflections on 'The Pornography of Violence,'" Newsweek