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When he launched his attempt to rebuild U.S. relations with the Muslim world seven years ago, Barack Obama started with Turkey and Egypt, vital U.S. allies that seemed to be on the cusp of change. Under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey was pioneering a model of moderate, democratic Islamism. Egypt was still ruled by an aging strongman, but with prodding from the George W. Bush administration, it had allowed the flourishing of a liberal civil society and was attempting to modernize its economy.
Since then, the two countries have, indeed, transformed their political systems and their relations with the United States — and the result has been a disaster for U.S. interests. As Obama prepares to leave office, Turkey and Egypt are emerging as twin models for a 21st-century Muslim authoritarianism, one Islamist and one secular. Their regimes are far more repressive than they were in 2009 and far less open to liberal ideas. But their most distinguishing feature, compared with a decade ago, is their anti-Americanism.
That's the first two paragraphs of this opinion peace.
Bush tried to export democracy and freedom as a means to peace in the middle east. Iraq had free elections. What happened?
Is all of this Obama’s fault? Of course not. Politics in Egypt and Turkey have been roiled by the failed Arab Spring, the rise of the Islamic State and the megalomania of their rulers, among other forces. But Obama’s attempt to “seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims,” as he put it in his Cairo address of 2009, manifestly backfired in these strategic countries. An important factor was his inconstancy: His administration veered between backing Mubarak and pushing him out; warning against an Egyptian coup and then endorsing the Sissi regime.
Having first cultivated Erdogan, Obama abruptly dropped him when he began pressing for U.S. intervention in Syria. The first U.S. response to the attempted coup, from Secretary of State John F. Kerry, was strikingly neutral. If Erdogan and Sissi have come to believe in conspiracy theories about the United States, maybe that’s because there’s been no rational way to explain Obama’s behavior.
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