It's been two days since Egypt's US trained and financed military overthrew the democratically elected President Morsi.
Is there any serious person who believes such a thing would happen without a green light from the US?
There is no doubt that there was mass dissatisfaction with Morsi among the Egyptian public. That dissatisfaction had little to do with Morsi's supposedly Islamist agenda.
From the beginning Morsi went out of his way to appease the US and Israel. The Egypt-Israel peace accord was respected in full. In spite of much pro-Palestinian rhetoric, the Gaza tunnels were far more restricted under Morsi than they were in the Mubarak era.
Domestically, Morsi allowed the price of food to rise to garner favor with European trading partners. The pending end of fuel subsidies was his attempt to appease the IMF.
As recently as three weeks ago Morsi was parroting the most jingoistic anti-Assad rhetoric in yet another attempt to gain favor in Washington.
With a year of slavish toadying to Washington under his belt, Morsi had every reason to believe that the greatest democracy in the world and it's erstwhile sidekick, the only democracy in the Middle East, would allow him to see out his democratically elected term.
That was obviously a miscalculation.
So now what?
The military bosses are promising new elections. Will the next elected leader succumb to the next Twitter mob as well?
Is this all part of a grand strategy to create in every Arab state conditions of perpetual upheaval and anarchy?
Perhaps Libya is the model of a perfect Arab state in the eyes of Washington. Civil society in chaos, the country bankrupt, but the oil sector humming along smoothly and the profits going... well, who knows, but certainly not to Libya.
If that is the case, then Morsi's greatest sin was not his supposed Islamist fundamentalism, but his eagerness to appease the West.
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