Less than a year after the Western-backed overthrow of the democratically elected Morsi government, the "new" democratically elected government of General Abdel al-Sisi isn't wasting any time showing who they're governing for.
Al-Sisi is rushing troops to the Israel-Egypt border to prevent terror attacks against Israel.
While preventing terror attacks against anyone is always a great idea, the optics in this case aren't going to endear the al-Sisi regime to the Egyptian masses who feel cheated out of their democratic franchise by the overthrow of Morsi.
They won't soon forget that both PM Netanyahu and President Peres wasted no time in congratulating al-Sisi on his election victory. The fact of a moderate Muslim being overthrown in favour of a Likud-friendly General has "blowback" written all over it.
We should understand by now that the surest way to guarantee the rise of extremism is to connive in the oppression of moderates.
Will we never learn?
Showing posts with label Morsi coup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morsi coup. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
What is Canadian PM Harper talking about when he talks about democracy?
The reason I frame that as a question is because I don't know.
I'm of a generation that was indoctrinated to believe that the ballot box, whatever its shortcomings, was a step forward from the bad old days of mob rule.
And it makes a certain amount of sense. Y'all put the guns down and go for a vote, and if you don't like the way the vote went, well, you suck it up and get out there and work really hard to make sure the result is different in four or five years.
What you don't do is pick up the guns and undo what just happened at the ballot box.
Stephen Harper has a record that suggests he's all about picking up the guns if you're not happy with what happened in the polling booth.
When Hamas won an election in Gaza in 2006, deemed free and fair by the international observers on the ground, Harper was the first international leader to denounce the result. Democracy is great, but only when the voters vote the right way.
When the democratically elected Manuel Zelaya was pushed aside in favour of the oligarchs in Honduras in 2009, the Harper government spoke of the putsch as a "restoration of democracy" and went on to sign a free trade deal with the new non-elected government. Democracy is great, but only when people vote responsibly.
Canada's response to the overthrow of Egypt's Morsi was this;
Canada firmly believes that implementing a transparent democratic system that respects the voices of its citizens, and that encourages and respects the contributions of civil society and all other segments of the population—including religious minorities—is the best way to restore calm and give all Egyptians a stake in the future stability and prosperity of Egypt.
"On behalf of all Canadians, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the political violence of the past several days and wish a speedy recovery for those injured.
"All Egyptians have the right to live in a free, democratic and secure society"
Overthrowing a democratically elected government is "implementing a transparent democratic system."
You have to love that last line (this comes from the website of Canada's Dept. of Foreign Affairs); it's OK for the army to overthrow the democratically elected government because "all Egyptians have the right to live in a free and democratic society..."
What the fuck is that? Orwell must have had a orgasm right there in his grave!
Which brings us to Ukraine. The government of the unelected "Yats" Yatsenyuk, the result of the Nuland-Pyatt putsch well documented everywhere, was not yet 24 hours old before John Baird was on the ground in Ukraine extolling the virtues of democracy!
Mr. Baird! Mr. Harper! "Democracy" is what it's called when you elect a government...
Overthrowing an elected government is commonly known as something else!
I'm of a generation that was indoctrinated to believe that the ballot box, whatever its shortcomings, was a step forward from the bad old days of mob rule.
And it makes a certain amount of sense. Y'all put the guns down and go for a vote, and if you don't like the way the vote went, well, you suck it up and get out there and work really hard to make sure the result is different in four or five years.
What you don't do is pick up the guns and undo what just happened at the ballot box.
Stephen Harper has a record that suggests he's all about picking up the guns if you're not happy with what happened in the polling booth.
When Hamas won an election in Gaza in 2006, deemed free and fair by the international observers on the ground, Harper was the first international leader to denounce the result. Democracy is great, but only when the voters vote the right way.
When the democratically elected Manuel Zelaya was pushed aside in favour of the oligarchs in Honduras in 2009, the Harper government spoke of the putsch as a "restoration of democracy" and went on to sign a free trade deal with the new non-elected government. Democracy is great, but only when people vote responsibly.
Canada's response to the overthrow of Egypt's Morsi was this;
Canada firmly believes that implementing a transparent democratic system that respects the voices of its citizens, and that encourages and respects the contributions of civil society and all other segments of the population—including religious minorities—is the best way to restore calm and give all Egyptians a stake in the future stability and prosperity of Egypt.
"On behalf of all Canadians, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the political violence of the past several days and wish a speedy recovery for those injured.
"All Egyptians have the right to live in a free, democratic and secure society"
Overthrowing a democratically elected government is "implementing a transparent democratic system."
You have to love that last line (this comes from the website of Canada's Dept. of Foreign Affairs); it's OK for the army to overthrow the democratically elected government because "all Egyptians have the right to live in a free and democratic society..."
What the fuck is that? Orwell must have had a orgasm right there in his grave!
Which brings us to Ukraine. The government of the unelected "Yats" Yatsenyuk, the result of the Nuland-Pyatt putsch well documented everywhere, was not yet 24 hours old before John Baird was on the ground in Ukraine extolling the virtues of democracy!
Mr. Baird! Mr. Harper! "Democracy" is what it's called when you elect a government...
Overthrowing an elected government is commonly known as something else!
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
US has lavished at least $66 billion on Egypt army but pretends it has no influence
Six weeks after the military coup that deposed a democratically elected government in Egypt, the US trained generals have unleashed the full fury of their armed forces on the Morsi supporters who have been demonstrating in the streets.
Marwan Bishara called the Americans on their rampant hypocrisy in an op-ed at Al Jazeera today. That's nice, but where American hypocrisy needs to be called is in the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post.
America's acolytes in Cairo are now slaughtering their own people, which is an accusation oft leveled at supposed enemies of the US when the hypocrites in Washington are trying to rally support for interventions in Libya or Syria.
So where is the outrage today?
Marwan Bishara called the Americans on their rampant hypocrisy in an op-ed at Al Jazeera today. That's nice, but where American hypocrisy needs to be called is in the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post.
America's acolytes in Cairo are now slaughtering their own people, which is an accusation oft leveled at supposed enemies of the US when the hypocrites in Washington are trying to rally support for interventions in Libya or Syria.
So where is the outrage today?
Friday, July 5, 2013
The sins of Mohamed Morsi
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.
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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