Egypt’s new Chief of Army Staff Sidki Sobhi has said that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from the Middle East while any democratisation in the region should come from within and have religious legitimacy, according to a paper he wrote in 2005. Though published before U.S. President Barack Obama was elected, the document written while Sobhi was studying in the United States, offers a rare insight into the thinking of a top officer in Egyptian army.
“I recommend that the permanent withdrawal of the United States military forces from the Middle East and the Gulf should be a goal of the U.S. strategy in this region,” wrote Sobhi, then a brigadier general studying for a Master of Strategic Studies Degree at the U.S. War College.
Sobhi said there was “a fundamental lack of understanding and communication” between foreign policy makers from U.S. administrations and governments in the region. One reason was U.S. policy makers worked in a strictly secular democratic system but: “The Islamic religion is strongly interlinked to various degrees with the functioning of most Arab governments and their respective societies.” The process of democratisation “must have and project political, social, cultural, and religious legitimacy. In other words, this democratisation process must be of and viewed as having a purely domestic origin”.
Sobhi’s thesis was posted on a U.S. Department of Defence website, and was initially highlighted by blogger and analyst Issandr El Amrani.