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tweakabelle -> RE: Thoughts on Egypt, Land of the Pharaoh's? (8/17/2013 12:04:07 AM)
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With something in excess of 600 deaths to date, and more expected, the situation in Egypt is clearly chaotic, verging on catastrophic. Sadly the violence was predictable, almost inevitable. Where did it all go wrong?
Morsi's Presidency was little short of a disaster. With his hands tied on side by the need to reward his Brotherhood base, and on the other by an over-riding need to keep the military onside, Morsi's decisions inflamed his political opponents and managed to alienate many of the masses who had voted him into power. Perversely, the military coup was welcomed by those who claim to support the democratic process and denounced by the MB and its few remaining allies. With so much blood spilled already and the inevitable prospect of more to come, it is difficult to see how either side can compromise. Will Egypt follow Syria into civil war? As things stand, the signs are not good. Denied access to power democratically won by an illegal military coup, and facing a military that has shown it will not stop at at any means to crush it, what other options does the MB still hold?
Generally, the demise of democracy was welcomed by the West, even if the West's leaders couldn't say it in so many words. The reaction of the Obama White House typifies this - refusing to denounce the coup as a "coup", while mouthing empty noises about the need to return to some vestige of democracy asap. Of course, everyone on the ground scornfully ignored the West's pathetic response.
Treated like village idiots by the Israelis. arming Al Quada-linked rebels in Syria, arming and supporting vicious despots in Saudi Arabia and other theocracies/monarchies, taking Iraq to the verge of civil war, acting belligerently towards Iran as punishment for (allegedly) daring to do what Israel has done for decades - develop nuclear weapons - without so much as a pip squeak of protest from the West, it is difficult to discern any coherence in US policy towards the region, if in fact there is a US policy at all. US irrelevance and impotence in the face a worsening situation across the region is the inevitable price the US pays for slavishly following Israeli dictates instead of developing a policy that suits US interests.
My greatest fear is that Arabs will conclude that democracy holds nothing for them, forcing them into more extreme positions, reviving AQ from its death bed and restoring AQ as a force to reckoned with in the Arab world. But after the tragic events in Egypt, and the ongoing punishment inflicted on Gazans for exercising their democratic choices, on what basis can we ask Arabs and Muslims to trust the ballot box in future?
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