29 thoughts on “Protest Egyptian Bloodbath, End U.S. Aid, Sever Relations With Military Junta – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Tamarod must be proud. On the walls of Cairo, they have written “August 14″ in the blood of innocents. But like July 8 and July 26, this day will shame them forever, and it’s one they’ll live to regret.

    The sustained brutality recalls Neruda:

    ” … and the blood of children ran through the streets
    without fuss, like children’s blood.

    Jackals that the jackals would despise,
    stones that the dry thistle would bite on and spit out,
    vipers that the vipers would abominate!

    Treacherous
    generals:
    see my dead house,
    look at broken Spain :
    from every house burning metal flows
    instead of flowers,
    from every socket of Spain
    Spain emerges
    and from every dead child a rifle with eyes,
    and from every crime bullets are born
    which will one day find
    the bull’s eye of your hearts.

    And you’ll ask: why doesn’t his poetry
    speak of dreams and leaves
    and the great volcanoes of his native land?

    Come and see the blood in the streets.
    Come and see
    The blood in the streets.
    Come and see the blood
    In the streets!”

  2. With respect to Lebanon, here is something I do not understand. Why is there a separate militia force, Hebzollah, defending the borders of the country rather than the Lebanese army?

    I don’t understand the nature of the relationship between the Hezbollah fighters and the Lebanese military.

    1. Lebanon is divided along ethnic lines. Shia live in the south, Sunnis farther north. Hezbollah largely represents Shia, hence they predominate there politically and militarily. There is a delicate complicated relationship between Hezbollah & the Lebanese army, which has historically been fairly weak.

    2. In Lebanon, all the political parties have armed militias. Hizbullah’s just happens to be the most effective. It is Israeli propaganda that insists that Hizbullah has the only armed militia. But it is not true. Rafiq Hariri and March 14 also have one; they tried to fight Hizbullah the other year and lost. How do you think the March 14 Sunnis in Tripoli attack the Alawites?

    3. Lebanon’s Sects Game: The Problem With Its Byzantine Political System

      (TIME) – By an ironclad tradition, Lebanon’s Prime Minister must be Sunni, the President Maronite, and head of parliament a Shi‘ite. All the other sects are assigned supporting roles, depending on how coalitions are built in parliament. In a case of affirmative-action ad absurdum, those sect-based appointments go all the way down to the diplomatic corps. To avoid sect favoritism at the ministry level, the deputy cannot be the same religion as his minister. Politics, not merit, defines leadership at key posts throughout the country.

      See also Lebanon’s History and the Taif Accords of 1989

      On October 22 1989 the Lebanese National Assembly meeting in Taif Saudi Arabia endorsed an accord for national reconciliation. The Taif accord restructured the political system in Lebanon by transferring power away from the traditionally Maronite presidency to a Cabinet divided equally between Muslims and Christians. The Taif accord also maps out a security plan for extending government sovereignty over all Lebanese territory. The accord calls for disbanding militias and strengthening of Lebanese government forces.

      Lebanon’s national defence strategy and the ‘Lebanonisation’ of Hezbollah

      After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 Syria felt increasingly encircled by American physical and political presence in the region. Washington exerted strong pressure on the Syrian leadership to disarm Hezbollah and cease all ties with Hamas – in other words, to break away from Iran’s orbit. After 2005, Lebanese government majority lay in the hands of a coalition of pro-Western Sunnis and Christians, which faced a minority opposition of Christians and Shia dominated by Hezbollah.

  3. Bob
    I read in a Lebanese Star article where they simply say the country is divided into two..
    The southern half is controlled by Hizbollah.

    The Lebanese Army in the south is merely for show as well as in other parts of Lebanon, they are toy soldiers.

    To understand what is happening in Egypt now it would be a good idea to read this link http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/war-college-paper.pdf

    I have linked to a paper that was prepared by then Brigadeir General El Sisi when he attended the US Army War College in Carlisle Pennysylvania. It has been reported that he intends to run for President of Egypt. You will read what is his idea what Muslim Mid East democracy should look like.

  4. Also saw that there was an attempted bill in the Senate to cut aid to Egypt but it was quashed.

    More info here:

    Senate kills Rand Paul attempt to cut Egypt aid

    The Senate on Wednesday killed a measure from Sen. Rand Paul that would have cut off United States aid to Egypt.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/egypt-aid-rand-paul-94980.html#ixzz2bzDZ6q00

    The vote was 86-13. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted with Paul, as did a small group of GOP senators that included Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas and Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

  5. Egypt: We’re Not There Yet

    “Hegazy needs a million martyrs going forward to Al Quds”

    You tell me about Egypt’s democracy, Muslim Brothers and the behavior of Salafist preacher Safwat Hegazy. Watch and listen for the hatred and incitement and from which political corner it comes. “It is either victory over the coup or martyrdom,” senior Brotherhood politician Mohammed El-Beltagy told the pro-Mursi rally. “Our blood and our souls for Islam!” the crowds chanted.

    Egyptians who are supporter of the Tamarod or “rebel” movement are killed, police stations across Egypt were attacked with multiple deaths and for weeks/months the Coptic christians and churches were under siege.

    The US can’t be a broker in Egypt, as they don’t want meddling in their domestic affairs.

    In the Sinai, Morsi refused the military a free hand to go after militants and kidnappers. These security personnel hostages were freed after negotiations but the kidnappers were let go. The kidnappers had an arsenal that included SAM-7 surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank missiles and landmines.

    1. What is your point, Oui? That the slaughter of these protesters is justified? Perhaps you are even pleased with it? You should be, since you were “elated” with the military coup, which you referred to as a “A LEGITIMATE OVERTHROW BY THE PEOPLE!!”.

      I’m sorry, but you have absolutely no credibility in the matter of Egypt. You even made the insane claim that the 2011 revolution was “backed by the police and the military”.

      You have repeatedly demonized the Brotherhood and defended the reactionary counter-revolution, but not a word of concern for those mowed down in the streets like dogs simply for calling for the restoration of the legitimate president, elected by a popular majority and repeatedly vindicated in over a dozen referenda. Not a word of sympathy for those shot in the back during morning prayers by uniformed murderers. Only the replication of the brainwashed hasbara of Tamarod. Like the so-called liberals of Egypt, you burn your own humanity upon the bonfires of hatred for the Brotherhood.

      Oui: “Egyptians who are supporter of the Tamarod or “rebel” movement are killed, police stations across Egypt were attacked with multiple deaths and for weeks/months the Coptic christians and churches were under siege.”

      How dare you talk about Tamarod’s thugs, which Norman Finkelstein rightly compares to Hitlerjugend, as victims? For a month, they have been agitating for the military to kill the protesters. And you weep for the attacks on Egyptian police stations, the primary tool for the mukhabarat’s repression, by those who were set upon by the security forces for peacefully demonstrating?

      What is happening TODAY, Oui, is that at least 278 are dead, and an unknown number of political prisoners have been taken. The military shot to kill, and then blocked the ambulances from reaching their victims. Have the decency not to try to obfuscate these events.

      “The US can’t be a broker in Egypt, as they don’t want meddling in their domestic affairs.”

      Do you actually believe that yourself? Just as Mr. Silverstein writes, America is feeding the junta 1.4 billion dollars per annum, as it stands. That is leverage. If the virtuous generals don’t want “meddling”, then they should refuse the money. As well as the money coming in from Saudi Arabia and the UAE — are these states glorious revolutionary democracies in your mind too?

      I realize my tone is rather polemic, but I find what you are saying offensive.

      1. I accept your sharp criticism, that’s what political discourse is all about. Perhaps I’m just the devil’s advocate in political terms, looking into developments across Arab states and the Middle-East.

    2. @Oui: I am not defending the Brotherhood, whose views I disagree with. But your comment was deeply flawed and one-sided. The injustice and brutality yesterday was all on one side and it wasn’t the Brotherhood. To attack them after 600 were killed & as many as 8,000 wounded seems outrageous.

  6. The legitimacy of the Mursi Muslim Brothers regime became intolerable after December 2012 power grab. The MB agitated Egyptian society with its intolerance towards minority and women’s rights in a remake of the constitution, judicial pressure and appointments of convicted militants to governorships. Morsi gave support to Hamas, did not stop violence against the Copts and limited the army’s response to militants in the Sinai. The US administration (Ms Obama) has clearly favored the MB axis Egypt-Hamas-Turkey-Qatar. Most likely to give support to any and all rebel fighters willing to take up arms against Assad in Syria. With 100,000 deaths, this adventure has been a gross failure of the Obama administration. See rhetoric used by Susan Rice in “diplomatic” channels of the UN Security Council.

    Tamarod — Arabic for Rebellion — is a grassroots campaign which says it collected more than 22 million signatures declaring a lack of confidence in Mursi. Anti-Morsi Egyptian protesters marching on June 30 with Qatar-Israel-US flag stitched together. Link – Mondoweiss. The search for a link Tamarod to the Hitler Jugend gave no results.

    The suffering and deaths of the Egyptian people is indeed intolerable. In a political stalemate as exists in Egypt, there is no force that could manage the MB to accept the fall of Morsi as a fact. The residents of Cairo took part in the violent opposition to the Morsi crowd and so called sit-ins. The response of the Morsi protestors was not peaceful as it’s unusual for security forces to suffer 43 deaths. Of course there is massive propaganda from all sides and it’s difficult to get a clue what really happened in the sequence of events. The only chance for the MB to recover in the PR campaign is to have victims seen on the newsreels. In the hate-filled speeches by the clerics of the mosque, it’s exactly what they called for. The MB leadership has most likely been arrested yesterday.

    I’m only a witness to events through the eyes of media and therefore coloured, biased and poorly informed. Just looking for a rationale as I have lived through decades of mass killings and genocides. Today’s events just confirms there is a power-play behind the scenes which involves the individual GCC states, US, EU and Turkey. The US has no leverage in Egyptian politics as everyone witnessed in the “missions” by Obama envoys William Burns, John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Burns managed to hold talks, the two senators were permitted a photo-op but weren’t taken seriously. Egyptians already have protest action when the name of the new US Ambassador to Egypt was leaked to the press. Egypt doesn’t want the likes of Robert S. Ford in Cairo.

    As soon as the Obama administration cuts military aid, it tears up the Egypt-Israel Peace treaty. It’s not what John Kerry can use right now and the military have made the same calculation. The GCC states have already pledged $12bn in aid to the military regime of Egypt, except Qatar naturally. Even today, read the reactions from the UAE and Bahrain in full support of Egypt’s interim government. McCain already called the people’s revolution a military coup during his visit, it didn’t impress Egypt’s leaders a bit.

    1. @Oui: Everyone here agrees that Morsi was, politically speaking, a failed president and that the faction he represents within the Muslim Brotherhood is detestably arch-conservative. I am not impressed with your argument that Morsi should be disliked because he did not share the Egyptian secular elite’s inhumanity towards Hamas and Gaza; but none the less, I share your low opinion of the Brotherhood’s politics.

      It is indisputable, however, that Morsi was in fact elected democratically by the people of Egypt. This was no accident, because the Muslim Brotherhood has won every single referendum it took part in, since the first revolution. Again and again, the actual people of Egypt have spoken. Just like in Turkey, the ultra-nationalist liberals in Egypt have tried, and failed, to win at the ballot box (which is what causes them invariably to go crying on the shoulder of the fascist military establishment). So it doesn’t matter what you or I think about Morsi: he is legitimate, he is popular, he was elected and he has been repeatedly validated and legitimized in the new democracy until its suspension on July 3, and the same goes for his party. That is the much-trumpeted “will of the people”. Furthermore, many of the political moves made by Morsi while in power that have been characterized as “power grabs” or moves towards “dictatorial powers” were, in fact, attempts to take power away from the military, who jealously maintained their privileges and their grip on the levers of power even after they were forced to surrender Mubarak in 2011.

      Given the repeated electoral triumphs for the Brotherhood, the unverified and unverifiable claims of Tamarod (which, for whatever relevance it has, Norman Finkelstein, whom I personally respect and whom you yourself have referred to in the past, likened to Hitlerjugend on his website after the massacre of 28 July, in the headline of a post that shared three different news stories — link here: http://normanfinkelstein.com/2013/tamarud-hitlerjugend-declare-victory-egypt-has-been-cleansed/ ) that they have collected fifty thousand billion — sorry, 29 million — signatures, seems dubious at best, or totally specious at worst (and is something Finkelstein has repeatedly questioned, as well, for the record). Regardless, I don’t, nor should any civilized person, accept a list of signatures as a warrant for military-orchestrated mass murder. If Tamarod were anything but spoiled cowards and hypocrites, they would have taken on Morsi’s government and his supporters themselves, instead of riding on the coat-tails of the Armed Forces. As I wrote in our previous discussion, it is easy to be a “rebel” or a “radical” or a “revolutionary” when you have tanks in the streets on your side and helicopters in the air, when you have snipers and machine guns firing on your unarmed enemies as they kneel on the ground during morning prayers. Tamarod is nothing but a legion of cowards and army-worshiping hasbarists. Furthermore, even if their most likely inflated numbers are correct, how many of those demonstrating against the Brotherhood’s government did so because of the concerted campaign of sabotage against infrastructure, utilities and basic services carried out by the vestiges of the mukhabarat and Mubarakites, as reported by the New York Times — see link here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/world/middleeast/improvements-in-egypt-suggest-a-campaign-that-undermined-morsi.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

      Such utterly underhanded tactics and such cynical ruthlessness discredit and render irrelevant the shrill-voiced outrage of useful idiots like Tamarod. Tamarod has betrayed the revolution, if they were ever even part of it. How does Tamarod explain that the junta has just appointed 17 military governors? How does Tamarod explain the return of Mubarak’s signature “state of emergency”? Let me guess — the War on Terror. No friend of Palestine should applaud the closing of Rafah.

      You talk about massive propaganda, when in fact it is quite easy to see, to anyone unblinded by what the New York Times calls the “hypernationalist euphoria” in Egypt, and anyone bearing in mind that the so-called “restorers of democracy” in Egypt have shut down all pro-Morsi news outlets rendering the information flow there completely one-sided, what is actually happening. The fact that, once the slaughter of protesters had begun, some of these protesters and their sympathizers in their rage lashed out against the fascist police, is no less natural than the rockets and projectiles launched into Israel from Gaza every time the IDF conducts a new operation of state terror against them, or the violent uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto against their antagonists. If you think, for a moment, that the protesters would have attacked and killed those security officers if it had not been for the all-out massacre being launched upon them by the military, you are out of your mind.

      What some cleric says in a mosque is irrelevant. You sound like the very same Wilders whom you regularly and appropriately denounce. What is relevant is reality and what is happening on the ground: peaceful demonstrators being gunned down. Wake up and smell the blood which is overrunning the gutters of Cairo — and flowing in the direction of Algeria. And for every “hateful sermon” you can dredge up, I can show you public statements by the persecuted leaders of the Brotherhood repeatedly calling for further peaceful protests, and for toppling the junta by non-violent means. The Brotherhood, regardless of their flawed politics, were always, and remain, the only true revolutionaries of Egypt, and the victims of this reactionary crackdown are indeed the martyrs of democracy.

      The idea that Egypt would somehow suddenly declare war on Israel the moment the US stops bribing them is preposterous. That simply isn’t going to happen. Now, there is only one way to find out if America has leverage or not — by ceasing the aid. Either it will curb the blood-thirst of the generals, or nothing will happen, and they will simply be content with the money from the oil monarchies instead. Then so be it. What exactly is the good of continuing the aid? As the NYT editorial board recently put it, the US should not be underwriting repression. And if the ultranationalists of Egypt so detest American “meddling”, as I said, then they should tell their American-trained army not to take American money, and their beloved Pharaoh Sisi not to accept the F-16s.

      1. Have you looked at Salafist preacher Safwat Hegazy and his role in the January 25 revolution and during the Muslim Brotherhood reign of power in Egypt? A warrant for his arrest has been signed but he is [was?] under protection of the MB organised sit-in at the Rabaah al-Adawiyah Mosque in Cairo’s Nasr City.

        His physical attack on two female photographers at Tahrir square, comments on the “blue bra” girl, appointed a member of the National Council for Human Rights (sic), demanded the resignation of Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa after his visit to Jerusalem, slamming Shia Islam as blasphemous and wrong, in a statement Al-Azhar described the accusations Hegazy pressed against Al-Tayeb as “the fruit of his sick imagination and mind“, issuing a fatwā calling for the death of visiting Israeli officials in 2006.

        Safwat Hegazy: “Jerusalem Belongs to Us, and the Whole World Belongs to Us.” [YouTube video]

        1. THis takes the discussion way off-course. Again, looking for demons among the MB isn’t helpful. There are plenty of military officers with blood on their hands doing what you’re doing. Is that what you intend? To be a mouthpiece for putchists?

          1. [Comment deleted. That’s it–warned you but you kept harping on the same nonsense. Knock it off!]

          2. @ Oui: Again — what, precisely, is your point? Do you even have one?

            That people who are robbed of democracy, and brutally persecuted with murderous violence, defend themselves with arms against their oppressors, is not news. It is called intifada. It happened in Warsaw, it happened in Palestine, it happened in Algeria, it is happening in Egypt. It’s ugly but absolutely inevitable, and sometimes even justified. The responsibility for ending this violence lies NOT with the Muslim Brotherhood, or with this or that Salafist preacher (the Salafis, incidentally, in the form of the al-Nour party, sided with the Armed Forces during the coup of July 3). That responsibility lies with the “government”, plainly speaking the military junta, and its supporters — who, however, have no interest in ending it. (For more on this assertion, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/world/middleeast/attacks-on-protesters-in-cairo-were-calculated-to-provoke-some-say.html?ref=global-home )

            The MB accepted the political resolution negotiated by Bernardino Leon and William Burns — not that they really should have had to accept anything except the restoration of democracy — and showed themselves willing to make great concessions. The junta rejected the plan. There is only one side responsible for this bloodshed, Oui, and it is the Armed Forces and their fanatical Kemalist henchmen.

            So, again, these observations you are putting forward are in my opinion uninteresting, irrelevant, myopic and seemingly pointless — unless your point is to try to hasbarize for the secularists.

          3. @Daniel: Your view is clear. My post was a last entry on this thread, an answer on two points for Mr. Silverstein. Fini.

    2. @Oui: I’ve noticed almost since you began commenting here that you have what sometimes seem a conflicting set of beliefs, some totally cogent & others not. Your views don’t hold consistency. Whenever I see that in a commenter it causes grave doubts. I’m beginning to feel you are something other than what you profess to be (whatever that is). At any rate, I find the thread of all your arguments in the above comment to be offensive. While you haven’t violated any comment rules to speak of, I insist on honesty and good faith from commenters & I suspect yours.

      The MB inherited a judicial system from the old, corrupt order. It was this system which threw out the parliamentary elections, which wouldn’t given democracy a more secure footing in Egypt. So to say that the list of MB’s sins includes “judicial pressure” is both false and misleading, if not worse.

      In terms of Morsi “giving support to Hamas,” this is where my suspicions were really aroused by you. First, Morsi did very little to support Hamas. In fact, he basically ceded relations with Hamas and most decisions about how to deal with Sinai to the security forces. It was a compromise he reached with them that allowed him to pursue the domestic agenda he chose. Second, what is wrong with “giving support to Hamas?” If you find fault with an Islamist nationalist giving support to Hamas then you simply don’t understand anything about Egypt, Hamas or Islamism.

      The US administration (Ms Obama) has clearly favored the MB axis Egypt-Hamas-Turkey-Qatar.

      The U.S. displayed no sympathy, support or favor for the MB. In fact, if anything the U.S. favored the generals as can be seen by our current timid response to bloodbath. U.S. policy toward Syria is an entirely different matter and different issues, players & priorities are involved. Syria is off topic in this thread, so please stay on topic.

      Tamarod was originally a grassroots youth movement that had legitimacy before Morsi was overthrown. But after the generals overthrew the democratic government and Tamarod expressed fealty to the military coup, it lost any legitimacy. No one today is still talking about Tamarod. As far as I’m concerned, it was a phenomenon which once had promise and no longer exists or has any credibility. If you persist in speaking about it as if it still exists or has credibility, you’re simply out of date.

      In a political stalemate as exists in Egypt, there is no force that could manage the MB to accept the fall of Morsi as a fact.

      Right, we call that a democracy. No military has the right to topple a democratically elected government. Unless you live in Belarus or North Korea. Or do you dispense with democratic niceties when you simply don’t like the party elected?

      The residents of Cairo took part in the violent opposition to the Morsi crowd

      Is this an inference that those Egyptians who opposed the Islamists supported the massacre?

      The response of the Morsi protestors was not peaceful as it’s unusual for security forces to suffer 43 deaths

      So if your claim of police deaths is true, which I don’t concede, that justifies killing 1,000 Islamist protesters? Further, are we claiming that the Egyptian police, known as being among the most brutal anywhere (they killed those 1,000 after all) didn’t do anything to provoke the hatred that Egyptians, whether secular or Islamist, feel for them?

      Of course there is massive propaganda from all sides and it’s difficult to get a clue what really happened

      Nope, it’s only difficult for apologists and head in the sanders like you. The rest of us (that is 99.5% of the rest of the world know pretty clearly what happened. Nearly 1,000 are dead, murdered in cold blood by putchists & military butchers. You’re welcome to be their defender. I’d think you’d feel just a tad embarrassed to be defending butchers. But apparently not.

      The only chance for the MB to recover in the PR campaign is to have victims seen on the newsreels.

      Now there you go again with that deeply offensive line about the MB feeling glad for their dead and only too eager to parade the bodies before cameras for political gain. I find that disgusting. I’ve rarely moderated or banned a commenter merely for being morally obtuse or offensive. But I might have to make an exception.

      In the hate-filled speeches by the clerics of the mosque

      You apparently missed those hate-filled speeches by el-Sisi and his lackeys directed at the Islamists. You only hear one side don’t you?

      I’m only a witness to events through the eyes of media and therefore coloured, biased and poorly informed.

      Quite true.

      As soon as the Obama administration cuts military aid, it tears up the Egypt-Israel Peace treaty

      I don’t presume you mean what you actually wrote, that the U.S. wants to tear up the treaty. I presume you meant that cutting aid will cause Egypt to abrogate the treaty. What you’re missing is that the generals love Israel & won’t end the treaty for all the sand in Sinai.

      1. “I’m beginning to feel you are something other than what you profess to be (whatever that is).”

        WYSIWYG Sorry, no links to any organisation, just a blogger on foreign policy issues looking at US policy from the outside. Highly appreciate your blog and will adhere strictly to the rules. I will be more careful in selecting topics to comment on. Will find a new balance between lurking and writing. Blog friends reading my opinions over a number of years, praise me for consistency. My antagonists hate me for contrarian views and criticising main stream views or Obama policy. My falling out with the MB in Egypt could be related to great disappointment by the failures of the Morsi regime to be inclusive. My great hope is to see realisation of an independent Palestinian state, I will try to understand the powers at work that oppose and support John Kerry’s initiative. Egypt plays a pivotal role for stability in the region and Arab world.

  7. Building A Nation

    Nothing new, a process that can be predicted how government, power and society works.

    Revolution and Counter-Revolution or Germany in 1848.

    What shocks me everytime with genocides – Vietnam – Cambodja – Nigeria/Biafra (and now Syria), is how the establishment of colonial nations, secret service, mercenaries and arms transports, manage to pull off covert action and dupe democracies, voters and nations. The cost in human lives is high, people in power seem to be immune for the suffering. As Gen. De Gaulle in the Foccart network of African Nations simply said: “Go for It.”

      1. How nice that Cole, after having been a naïve cheerleader for Sisi’s Coup for so long, has finally come to realize the truth. But there were many of us who could see, already by the final days of June and early July, exactly what was going to happen, and said as much at the time. Unfortunately, Cole’s conversion, like that of ElBaradei, comes a thousand corpses too late. I agree with Erdogan’s recent assertion that it was the muted reactions, silence or even approval of the Western world to and since July 3 which emboldened and enabled the Armed Forces to engage in such extreme brutality. And too much blood has now flown under the bridge for a quick resolution to be possible.

        Here’s a writer with a far more “informed comment” than Juan Cole; Esam Al-Amin via CounterPunch:

        http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/15/bloodbath-on-the-nile/

        http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/19/the-grand-scam-spinning-egypts-military-coup/

        1. @Daniel: I respect Juan Cole a great deal & don’t know much about his views on this particular subject. But I do think his views are influenced at least in part by the fact that I understand he’s Ba’hai. This means that Islamists like the Brotherhood (and the Iranian clerics) hate his religion and have used vicious violence against its disciples & believers. That may explain why he would’ve hoped for democratic outcome that avoided Islamists in power.

  8. Oui

    If you havnt read the link I have posted to re General Sisi report on his view of Arab democratization you should. It helps to see how the process of democracy is unfolding in Egypt from El Sisi prospective and from that of the MB.

    1. @Ya shove: thanks!

      Well written and very reasonable. Even offers a blue print for a democracy under leadership of the Muslim Brothers. Clearly, Morsi violated all the principles stated by Gen. Sisi. I find the general very kind to the US and the Iraq and Afghanistan “adventure.” From this report, the US never had a chance to reach it’s stated goal of a Western style democracy. No surprise there, even I could have warned the Bush administration. In fact, President Mubarak and the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah gave the warning to Bush. Sisi mentions Syria warmly and hopes to overcome the Sunni/Shia divide and prevent hostilities. Reality is always tougher to deal with than theory and events move too fast.

      From his report, he expresses his desire to work for the Egyptian people according to the principles of the Muslim faith. It’s been a very tough first six weeks!

  9. Democracy, has we know it today was an evolving social/cultural process which consist of many different mini revolutions – Industrial revolution, Science Revolution, Education Revolution and others.
    The process was accompanied by a blood bath and the end of the process had been the implementation of Democracy.
    The Arab world is perfectly capable of going through the process, and technology would count for substantial short-cuts however the Arab world still need to go through the changes. one major attribute would be the change from a tribal society to mass focal society. The arab world needs its to go through the change on it own paste, and the best thing we as westerners can do is simply not intervene with the process.

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