WASHINGTON
(AP) -- As Arab Spring democracy uprisings spread across the Middle
East, President Barack Obama's response to the political unrest has been
to voice support for people seeking representative governments but
limit the role the United States will play to shape those efforts.
The
president's philosophy of limited engagement is facing perhaps its
toughest test in Egypt, where the nation's first democratically elected
president was ousted by military forces with deep, decadeslong ties to
the U.S.
The White House has refused to
declare Mohammed Morsi's removal from power a coup - a step that would
require Obama to suspend $1.3 billion in annual aid - even after the
military-backed interim government led crackdowns last week that left
more than 600 people dead and thousands more injured.
Obama's
resistance to suspending U.S. support for Egypt's military leaves the
White House with little leverage, effectively relegating the president
to the role of a bystander issuing strongly worded statements. The U.S.
position has also stirred up anti-American sentiment in Egypt, with
Morsi supporters accusing the U.S. of failing to live up to its own
democratic values by allowing an elected leader to be pushed aside.
The
president insists that the U.S. stands with Egyptians seeking a
democratic government. But he says America could not determine Egypt's
future and would not "take sides with any political party or political
figure."
"I know it's tempting inside of Egypt
to blame the United States or the West or some other outside actor for
what's gone wrong," Obama said Thursday in remarks from his rented
vacation house in Massachusetts on Martha's Vineyard. "We've been blamed
by supporters of Morsi. We've been blamed by the other side, as if we
are supporters of Morsi."
"That kind of approach will do nothing to help Egyptians achieve the future that they deserve," Obama added.
Steven
Cook, a Middle East analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, said
that Obama's "middle-splitting" approach for Egypt undercuts U.S.
support for democracy in the region.
"The idea
that we can influence the trajectory of the politics is foolish," Cook
said. "But to have not been consistent in emphasizing our own values in
this situation is a mistake. We should stick to the principles of
democracy and recognition for the rule of law."
However,
the U.S. relationship with Egypt has long required Washington to ignore
the country's repressive politics in exchange for regional stability.
For 30 years the U.S. propped up Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak in part
to ensure that he maintained Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, one of
only two such accords in the Arab world.
But
Obama abandoned Mubarak in 2011, when millions of Egyptians took to the
streets to demand an end to his rule. Mubarak eventually resigned,
clearing the way for Egypt's first democratic elections and inspiring
pro-democracy protests in other countries throughout the Middle East and
North Africa.
The U.S. has consistently
voiced support for the popular uprisings and in some cases demanded that
autocratic leaders leave power. In Libya, the U.S. joined with allies
to set up a no-fly zone to help opposition forces oust longtime leader
Moammar Gahdafi. And in Syria, the U.S. has levied economic sanctions
and approved light weaponry for rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's
government, though it has done little to stop the civil war that has
left more than 100,000 people dead.
But
throughout the Arab Spring, the White House has been wary of getting too
deeply involved in setting up new governments in the region.
Ben
Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said the president
does not believe it is his role to "engineer a political process."
"The
challenge for us is that picking winners and seeking to engineer a
solution puts us right in the middle of the situation and ultimately
makes the U.S. the issue," Rhodes said.
The
president's approach was shaped in part by his opposition to the Iraq
War, a conflict that was first built as an anti-terrorism campaign but
became a U.S.-led exercise in democracy-building. Obama oversaw the end
of the war in his first term and has since tried to keep the war weary,
economically strapped U.S. out of other lengthy foreign conflicts.
Obama's
philosophy is also driven in part by concerns that the governments
formed after the Arab Spring uprisings may be more detrimental to
American interests than the autocratic regimes they replace.
Before
Morsi's ouster, U.S. officials were worried that the Egyptian leader
fit into that category. A senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi
was accused of giving the Islamist political movement undue influence
in the government after he took power. Egyptians also blamed him for
failing to make good on promised economic reforms.
The
military removed Morsi from power last month following massive street
protests that drew comparisons to the demonstrations that ousted Mubarak
in 2011. The military has promised to roll back Morsi's Islamist
constitution and hold free elections next year.
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