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| Robert Stephen Ford Wikimedia Commons Image |
Activist Post
Amid the growing tension in Egypt after the military counter-coup removing former President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from their posts, the U.S. State Department is considering naming former U.S. Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, as the new Ambassador to Egypt.
With the geographic size of Egypt, its geopolitical importance, and both its historic and contemporary influence in the Middle East, the post of Ambassador to Egypt is an immensely important position, particularly now that both sides in the Egyptian turmoil have legitimate reasons to distrust and detest the United States. As Michael Gordon of the New York Times writes,
The next American ambassador has the difficult task of repairing the United States’ image, expanding its influence and working with opposing groups inside the country, as well as diplomats from Arab and European nations, to try to stabilize Egypt and put it on a democratic course.[1]Obviously, putting Egypt on a “democratic course” is not the intention of the United States, evidenced by the support and assistance provided to Morsi and the fanatical Muslim Brotherhood by the U.S. government all the way until the counter-coup was launched by the Egyptian military in response to popular outrage. Morsi’s constant rewriting of the Egyptian Constitution,[2] capitulation to the IMF,[3] and flirtation with Muslim fundamentalists and warmongers[4] was anything but “democratic” rule of law.
