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Friday November 19, 2010

I've Been Thinking:

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry released a statement yesterday saying that the country was "dismayed" by the US call to send international monitors to observe their upcoming elections.

The statement implied that the United States was interfering in Egyptian domestic affairs. The US has neither rights nor any role in policing the inner workings of Egypt.

Egypt is suggesting that the US is not treating them like a friend but like a banana republic. They are suggesting that the United States is disrespecting Egypt - the society the leaders and the people. This type of disrespect unites a society against the West and helps to nurture anti-American sentiment.

If Egyptian leadership is stoking this narrative, it means they are posturing in order to create serious anti-America feeling. It means they are trying to sway the anti-Western vote away from the Muslim Brotherhood by demonstrating that they are even more anti-Western than the Brotherhood.

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