An article dated 12th February 2011, written by New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof appeared with the title “What Egypt Can Teach America”. The title interested me because at the first signs of the unrest in the Middle East, I wondered why America had been involved with the problems the Middle East. After I read the article, it was crystal clear to me that the USA had a lot of connections with the Middle East. If I summarize the article, I can bullet point four important lessons that, Mr. Kristof claims, USA should learn after the unrest in the area.
· After 9/11 the paranoia of fundamentalist Islam has caused America to have a stereotype vision of the Arab countries which is; they are undemocratic. Then USA has built its foreign policy with those countries based on this judgment.
· The writer is criticizing the “intelligence” services of the USA because he believes they have not realized the unrest that is building up in the region. If the intelligence service had read the signals properly, it would not have been a surprise for USA.
· Information technologies, like Twitter, Facebook and other social network tools and TV channels that are not controlled by the governments help the societies to come together and form a revolt.
· The politics that USA governments have had so far make it seem seem that they tried to keep the area without problems for them but the cost of it was undemocratic ruling of their people.
After the article I realized, the super power USA could also fail to judge what is happening around the world. It seems that the USA only watches their own benefits out of the Middle East but could not understand the needs of the society which lives there.