Misconception or Betrayal? The U.S., Egypt, and Iran

The similarities between Iran and Egypt concerning U.S. policy are disconcerting.  Is Egypt repeating the 1979 Iranian revolution, led by religious preaching against authoritarian friend of the U.S., the shah, resulting in an Islamic theocracy?  Will the Islamic theocracy led by the Muslim Brotherhood win, or will the military keep its political power?  

At the beginning, the U.S. supported the shah in Iran and Mubarak in Egypt overtly, but pressured them to democratize and liberalize the regimes covertly.  Both the shah and Mubarak declined, claiming of outside (the communists) and inside (the Muslim Brotherhood) threats, respectively.

The politics of Islamic disguise (Taqiyah)

Both branches of the Muslim Brotherhood brilliantly practiced Islamic Taqiyah to hide their real intentions and political ambitions amidst the mass uprisings.

...

What Mubarak and the shah both failed to understand is never to make concessions when one is weak, because it just increases the appetite for more concessions.  What the U.S. has not understood is that its pressures are disastrous, since they encourage the opposition to believe that the regime has lost its legitimacy and support on the international arena.  The most dangerous analogy between Iran in 1979 and Egypt in 2011 is how the dangers of a new radical Islamic regime are deeply misunderstood.  Cairo 2011 is more likely to become Tehran 1979 than Berlin 1989, and the big question remains: would Obama even care if Egypt becomes another Iran?

Read more at:  http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/misconception_or_betrayal_the.html