Europeans who considered Turkey a potential Trojan horse for America within the European Union were forced to reconsider. For many Arabs, the vote showed that Turkey was not an American lackey and would not cooperate with American imperial designs, despite close Turkish Israeli relations.

In Pinochet s Chile or General Jorge Rafael Videla s Argentina, anyone who complained about government sponsored violence was painted as a member of an international communist conspiracy. Today, anyone who complains about violence in Venezuela is, according to President Nicolás Maduro, a fascist and a lackey of the American empire.

But Mubarak never entirely fit his detractors portrayal of him as an American lackey. In fact, Mubarak s need to please his Saudi Arabian benefactors, not the United States, was paramount in his thinking. Although he sometimes supported American policies, Mubarak frequently rebuffed the US when its positions did not align with his own.

He understood that Argentines were tired of the Kirchners imperious (one might even say authoritarian) political style, whereby anyone who disagreed with them was branded a lackey of dark imperialist forces. Even for a country with a political history as tumultuous as Argentina s, partisan polarization and vitriol had reached levels that seemed extreme.

But Mubarak never entirely fit his detractors portrayal of him as an American lackey. In fact, Mubarak s need to please his Saudi Arabian benefactors, not the United States, was paramount in his thinking. Although he sometimes supported American policies, Mubarak frequently rebuffed the US when its positions did not align with his own.