Saturday, July 6, 2013

What Really Happened: The Coup in Egypt.

By Eric Margolis

The real story behind the military coup in Cairo led by General al-Sissi is much more complex than the western media is reporting. Far from a spontaneous uprising by Egyptians, – aka “a people’s revolution” – what really happened was a putsch orchestrated by Egypt’s “deep government” and outside powers – the latest phase of the counter-revolution against the so-called Arab Spring.

A year ago, Egyptians elected Mohammed Morsi president in their first fair democratic election. Morsi came from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, an eight-decade old conservative movement of professionals dedicated to bringing Islamic principals of public welfare, politics, education, justice, piety and fighting corruption.

But the deck was stacked against Morsi and the Brotherhood from day one. The brutal US-backed Mubarak had fallen, but the organs of his 30-year dictatorship, Egypt’s pampered 440,000-man military, judiciary, academia, media, police, intelligence services and bureaucrats, remained in place. Even Morsi’s presidential guard remained under control of the Mubarak forces.

The dictatorship’s old guard – better known as the “deep government” – sought to thwart every move of the Brotherhood. In fact, the stolid, plodding Morsi only became president after more capable colleagues were vetoed by the hard-line Mubarakist courts.

Morsi should have purged the “deep government,” notably the police, secret police, judges, and media who were sabotaging the democratic government. But Morsi was too soft, and the entrenched powers arrayed against him too strong. He never managed to grasp the levers of state. Ironically, after all the media hysteria in North America over the alleged dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood, it turned out to be a dud.

The Brotherhood stumbled from one crisis to the next as Egypt’s economy, already in terrible shape before the 2011 revolution, sank like a rock. Tourism, that provided 17% of national income, evaporated. Unemployment soared over 13%, and over 50% among angry urban young. We have recently seen this same phenomena in Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Pakistan, and Western Europe. Severe shortages of fuel and electricity sparked outrage.

Egypt’s curse is that it cannot feed its surging population of over 90 million. So Cairo imports huge quantities of wheat and subsidizes retail prices for bread. The US sustained the Sadat and Mubarak regimes with boatloads of wheat discounted 50%. This vital aid tapered off when Morsi took power. Food prices in Egypt rose 10%.

Equally important, ever since Anwar Sadat invited in the US to rearm his outdated military, Egypt’s armed forces have become joined at the hip with the Pentagon. Just as Turkey’s 500,000-man armed forces were, until eleven years ago, and Pakistan’s so remain today.

Armies of many Muslim states are designed to control their populations, not defeat foreign enemies.

Read the rest here.

5 comments:

  1. Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
    Not a single sighting of the word, "Women".

    See, Women don't count. The Big Democrat and Lover of Humanity Morsi continued the brutaliztion of women. The genital mutilation of women continues and sexual terror against women continues.

    On and on and on..

    Please spare me the details of how Morsi was wronged and the MB really, really was the Hope for Democracy. Ask the WOMEN if there was a difference.

    Kerouac, in his book, _On the Road_, had a character who stated that, "World peace will never appear until every man falls down on his knees in front of a woman and begs for forgiveness."

    So tell me another lie. Tell me that Morsi's fall was a real tragedy. Tell me another lie.

    CW

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  2. @CW

    I ran your post by a female Egyptian friend of mine, and she seemed rather insulted. She said "Tell that person that I think he is believing too much of your media, and does not know what he is talking about. We are not brutalized here. We are treated as equally as everyone else. I am a doctor even! And I have never been brutalized."

    I would tend to trust an actual Egyptian woman's perspective...

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  3. http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/first/badawi.html

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/egyptian-girl-dies-female-circumcision-article-1.1368678

    http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/4/07-042093/en/

    http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/lara-logan-life-dwelling-bad-article-1.1009501?pgno=1

    http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/05/15675200-men-dont-have-to-worry-about-being-caught-sex-mobs-target-egypts-women?lite

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/15/us-women-un-rights-idUSBRE92E03D20130315

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1369259/Egypt-protests-Women-forced-virginity-checks-arrests-Tahir-Square.html

    http://www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/486610/20130704/egypt-violence-against-women-egyptian-arab-spring.htm

    And that's just in a few minutes of searches. I left out quite a bit.
    Very sickening, actually. Note that the euphemistic "female cicumcision", aka Female Genital Mutilation, has been "illegal" since 2008.

    Yeah, sure it has.

    CW

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  4. 'N one more from good ol' civilized London:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/15/ucl-bans-islamic-group-over-segregation

    I guess everything's just OK, eh?

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  5. Just for the record: DanielC15, I do not believe that you talked to a "Dr. Taqiyya" or whatever name you might happen to make up. It's POSSIBLE, barely, but I'm calling "fraud" here.

    Nonetheless, it is important to see how deeply imbedded the abuse of women has become:

    http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/07/5549696/female-inmates-sterilized-in-california.html

    Here in the good ol' U S of A. It's all there. The bureaucratic denials, "It's for their own good" mentality, everything. For the GOOD of the STATE. Of course, the money for this forced sterilization was rather poor. Of course it was!!!

    Egypt? America?

    "What difference does it make now...?"
    I hope they don't come for you, DanielC15. It'll be kinda' difficult for you to claim an injustice wouldn't it?

    CW

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