Egypt: From someone who lives there

Obviously, it is a very complicated issue.

Morsi was elected in a fair and free election with the same margin of victory as Barack Obama. He was unpopular and autocratic but he was a democratically elected President. I am 100% against the military coup that threw him out.

The Constitution which was passed overwhelmingly with 64% of the vote has been dissolved as well, without a single vote being cast to do so.

Had the Army sided with Morsi, there was a possibility that he would have become more attentive to the wishes of the people. If not, there would be an election in three years and Egypt, while currently under Islamist rule, would have been a burgeoning democracy. It's very likely that a more secular President could have come to power legitimately in 3 years time.

Now the military and the Egyptian people have established a precedent where if you are not happy with the President after 100 days or 1 year or 2 weeks, you take to the streets and oust him. That is not democracy. It's chaos and leads to instability in a very crucial Arab country. That is bad for America and especially bad for Israel.

Beyond that, during Mubarak's 30 year reign and for the year and a half prior to Morsi's election, the Egyptian Military were essentially running the country. That was good for America because they were beholden to us for aid to the tune of about 2 billion dollars a year. However, that has all changed. Since Hillary and her BFF Barack made the decision to toss Hosni Mubarak under the bus and embrace the Muslim Brotherhood the Egyptian Military has gotten in bed with Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates and no longer need or care about Obama or America's money. They now dance to the tune of a new and wealthier piper.

For sure behind the scenes Obama tried to pressure the Egyptian military into protecting Morsi to avoid this new mess, but we no longer have leverage.

So, what happens now? Immediately, there will be euphoria and excitement in Egypt. Then there will be a month of Ramadan. And then I predict sectarian and political violence all over Egypt, disappointment and disillusion with the Army rule, and even worse economic conditions in Egypt, not to mention more gigantic and deadly demonstrations.

In short: Hell to pay for this idiocy.

And who's to blame? Hillary. Were it not for her and her BFF, Obama, Mubarak would still be in power, Egypt would be stable, America would be safer, Israel would be safer, and the Egyptians would be far better off.

POSTCRIPT:

It should be noted that the objection to President Morsi was almost entirely economic based. The Egyptian economy is in the toilet. No tourism. No foreign investment. No hard currency. Long bread and gas lines. Power outages.

American television is portraying this as a rebuke of the Islamists. It is not. it is a rebuke of the Muslim Brotherhood, who happen to be Islamists, but more importantly to the Egyptian people, have done nothing to solve the economic problems and have in fact exacerbated them. If a different Islamist party arises or even just a different Brotherhood candidate, that person could easily get elected. Egyptians are not disillusioned with the Islamists, they just want Islamists who know how to build an economy.

Of course, the irony is that by causing this chaos and uncertainty the Egyptian economy will now spiral down even lower.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s latest mindboggling foray into Middle East analysis

...and other howlers...

If we expect the successors of Mubarak and Qaddafi to be freedom-loving democrats, we will be dangerously disappointed.

Newsweek's new columnist on Obama's foreign-policy debacle

The Daily Beast: Newsweek's new columnist makes his debut in this week's issue with a cover story on Obama's Egypt debacle and the strategic vacuum it exposes in the White House.

EGYPT IS NOT A SECULAR COUNTRY

From a friend who lives in Cairo:

Ninety percent of the women are veiled by choice. That is not by law, they just choose to be veiled. The legal system is Sharia based, meaning women have virtually no rights to inheritance and are not considered the equal of men in the eyes of the law. They can not petition for divorce, while a man can divorce his wife by saying “I divorce you” three times. The mosques are so over crowded that during the daytime when people can not pray at home they pray on the sidewalks outside the overflowing mosques. Since women can not pray in public, they literally kneel down on the floors of public bathrooms to pray. Most marriages are arranged.

The average Egyptian hates America and detests Israel. A few years ago, the number one song for several months on the Egyptian version of MTV was a ditty entitled “I Hate Israel.”

In the five years that I've been living in Cairo, I have never met a single Egyptian who did not believe that 9/11 was an Israeli/American plot. Not one. Every single Egyptian is a Truther. Every one.

Every Friday after prayers, somewhere in Egypt there is an attack on a Coptic Church or an individual Coptic. Sometimes it’s a large enough attack to make the international news, usually not. But, it is definitely “business as usual” to kill a few Copts every Friday.

As for the Army, who do you think has been running Egypt for the last 50 years? Mubarak was an Army man’s Army man. The new “transitional” leader of Egypt will most likely be a 75 year old Army man in the same mold as Mubarak. The Army has no affection for America. They have affection for the billions of dollars we throw in their direction.

It is not all flowers and balloons and “freedom” and “democracy” in Egypt right now. It is a disaster which will probably lead to a catastrophe.

The elderly, ailing Mubarak was not long for this world before the so-called revolution in Egypt. The Army was well aware of that. Mubarak wanted his son Gamal to succeed him. The Army hates Gamal because they see him as weak. Nothing is more reviled in the Muslim world than weakness.

If none of this had happened, some time in the near future there would have been a bloodless coup to replace Mubarak with a different Army strongman, which is exactly what happened. That is why the Army stood back and let the protestors run wild. The protestors were the useful idiots for the Army and the Army came out smelling like a rose. Everyone is hailing the Army for its “restraint.” That wasn’t “restraint,” it was a tactic to get exactly the outcome they wanted.

UPDATE:

I think the Muslim Brotherhood has been greatly strengthened. On the other hand, the Army does not cotton to the Brotherhood, so that is good thing.

If there is an election in September or any time in the near future the Brotherhood will increase their 20% representation in the Government considerably. Will they win in this upcoming election? No. Will they win if there are future elections? Very likely.

Will they have huge influence over the government starting today? Absolutely.

All this talk about the Brotherhood being a small minority is ridiculous. They are the only organized opposition political party in Egypt. They are cunning. They are smart. They have played their cards well. Not to mention, before the fall of Mubarak, when they were an illegal party they still garnered 20% of the vote. Now they have been given legitimacy by the U.S. Government, they are the only organized political group, there is a power vacuum, and the people of Egypt are going to be very disappointed and disillusioned when they realize they have gotten rid of an 82 year old military dictator and replaced him with a 75 year old military dictator.

Let’s put it this way: things are looking up for the Muslim Brotherhood, but not so much for Israel or the U.S.

Just great: Obama kills Saudi King

Nice job, Bama.

King Abdullah talked with Obama about the situation in Egypt over the phone yesterday. Obama and the King got into a heated debate about their opinions of what Hosni Mubarak should do. After the phone call sources stated that King Abdullah was furious and then suffered a sudden heart attack.

Saudia Arabia's King Abdullah passed away

Once again the worldwide Left are being played by the Islamists...

THE NEVILLE AWARDS:

After the Shiite Mullahs in Iran and Lebanon are through fighting the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Saudi Arabia the Left will be astonished when the Islamists turn on them. In the Leftist mind it can't happen to them…after all they are the enlightened ones, they are for reason, peace and non-violence. The alligator will eat them last if they just play ball with the Muslims.

Obama & Egypt -- Down the IslamoNazi Rat Hole

The Incredible Lightness of Obama

Clarice Feldman, American Thinker:

This week saw a showdown between the man whose most significant achievement before 2008 was that he very nearly got the asbestos removed from the Altgeld Gardens tenements in Chicago and the third-longest-ruling head of Egypt since the Pharaoh Ramses, whose reign lasted 67 years. The Egyptian, an 82-year-old with terminal cancer, easily bested the community organizer, the man elected by people who quite clearly confused the last presidential election with an American idol contest. While many who elected the American president probably do not yet realize it, it is lucky for them that he lost the showdown, for had he not, the results would have created worldwide havoc and devastation.

Read more

EGYPT: Taking Inventory

PowerLine:

One of the chief problems confronting the United States in the uprising against Hosni Mubarak is the lack of good alternatives. Just about any conceivable outcome is likely to be worse for the Untied States than the continued rule of Mubarak. Barry Rubin doesn't consider the range of alternatives available, but he takes an inventory of regimes from the perspective of American interests. He asks readers to consider the following chart:

There Must Be Some Way Out Of Here

82% of Egyptians support executing adulterers by stoning; 77% support whipping and cutting hands off thieves; 84% support executing any Muslim who changes his religion.

Caroline Glick:

Does the US fail to understand what will happen to its strategic interests in the region if the Muslim Brotherhood is the power behind the throne of the next regime?

Clueless in Washington

Right now the late '70s are back in reruns with Egypt playing the role of Iran...

...and Barack Obama playing the role of Jimmy Carter?

ANGRY FRIDAY: EGYPT ON FIRE

From John Bolton via Michelle Malkin

Let me be clear here, this is not just the Mubarak-family government. The military has ruled Egypt since Gamal Nasser and they over through King Farook.

It’s the military that is the real government and they are not going to go peacefully.

I think the question is whether and to what extent the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islamists have infiltrated the leadership. If the military holds firm it’s entirely possible, although bloody, that the government can hold onto power. That doesn’t necessarily mean Mubarak will be in power, but the military will be, and I think that is why this contrast makes it so important for people to understand, this is not a choice between the Mubarak government on one hand, and sweetness and light, Jeffersonian democracy on the other.

I don’t think we have evidence yet that these demonstrations are necessarily about democracy. You know the old saying, “one person, one vote, one time.” The Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t care about democracy, if they get into power you’re not going to have free and fair elections either.

And I think there is substantial reason, for example, to worry the minority Coptic Christian population, about 10% of the population will be very worried if the Muslim Brotherhood came to power.

Let’s be clear what the stakes are for the United States. We have an authoritarian regime in power that has been our ally. We don’t know at this point what the real alternatives are.