Egypt’s new second-in-command of the military;" U.S. troops should be withdrawn from the Middle East".

Egypt’s new second-in-command of the military: "U.S. troops should be withdrawn from the Middle East".(MMN).CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s new second-in-command of the military has said that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from the Middle East while any democratization in the region should come from within and have religious legitimacy, according to a paper he wrote in 2005.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 newly appointed Chief of Staff Sidki Sobhi was studying in the United States offers a rare insight into the thinking of a top officer in the traditionally opaque Egyptian army.

The generals, who for decades stayed in the shadows, were thrust to the fore when Hosni Mubarak, himself a former air force commander, was toppled in an uprising last year and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces took charge.

An Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, came to office in June and stamped his authority over the military this week by retiring the country’s two top generals and taking back vital powers they had earlier retained for themselves.

Though generals held news conference and gave interviews when in charge, they gave little away in public about their thoughts on broader policy beyond the transition, such as the crucial relationship with the United States, which gives Egypt $1.3 billion in military aid a year and trains many officers.

“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.

He added in his concluding remarks to the 10,600-word thesis 

“that the United States should pursue its strategic goals in the region through socioeconomic means and the impartial application of international law”, in a reference to what he had earlier described as Washington’s “one-sided” relationship with Israel.

He said the presence of U.S. troops in the region had been used as a justification for armed struggle by radical Islamists.

Though many in the Middle East object to U.S. soldiers being posted there, it is unusual to hear the view aired so clearly by a senior figure in the army of Egypt, a staunch U.S. ally.

Sobhi said there was “a fundamental lack of understanding and communication” between foreign policy makers from U.S. administrations and governments in the region, writing before Obama sought to shift U.S. policy by reaching out to the Arab and Muslim world with a pivotal speech in Cairo in 2009.

The general said 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 democratization “must have and project political, social, cultural, and religious legitimacy. In other words, this democratization process must be of and viewed as having a purely domestic origin,” he wrote, highlighting in italics the words “religious”, “viewed” and “purely domestic”.

He said Washington should turn its focus to a “new Marshall Plan”, mirroring the huge package of aid that helped Europe rebuild after World War Two, to regain its influence.

Sobhi’s thesis was posted on a U.S. Department of Defense website, and was initially highlighted by blogger and analyst Issandr El Amrani.Hmmm.........Thank you for the money and the weapons........"Don't let the door hit you on your way out".Read the full story here.