Chriss Street: Egypt Joins The Arab Winter

Egypt has went through major convulsions these past couple weeks--millions demonstrating against President Morsi, and the recent demand by Egypt's military that Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood had 48 hours to basically "get their act together".  As would be expected, Morsi didn't meet their demands, and the military removed him from office.

I have watched the situation in Egypt with interest and concern. It has a population of 90 million people--with 6.76 million in Cairo alone, and another 10 million in the immediate outskirts. As such Cairo is the largest city in Africa, and Egypt has the largest populations of any Arab country.

While Hosni Mubarak was no angel, he was favorably disposed towards the U.S.  As we all know, he was removed from office, and Egypt held democratic elections in which Mohammed Morsi was elected. Though he claimed to be working for all Egyptians, he quickly aligned himself with the Muslim Brotherhood (if he wasn't already), and started to consolidate power. He dissolved the country's Supreme Court, and granted to himself sweeping powers that no longer required legislative review before enactment.

Morsi also showed his vehement anti-Semitism when he referred to Jews as being descended from apes and pigs...

Many people that originally voted for Morsi have come to regret it. They have now come together in a major movement to bring about change in the Egyptian government.

President Obama applauded the Egyptian elections, and, arranged to let Egypt have a number of M-1 Abrams tanks (the toned-down export version and F-16 jets--1.2 billion dollar's worth.

This worries me, as it provides a serious upgrade to Egypt's weaponry, which could be used against Israel, or against an nation transiting the Suez Canal into the Arabian Sea--remember that Egypt controls the Suez Canal.

What worries me more is that President Obama recently offered to send Morsi a crack team of experts to deal with large demonstrations, urban unrest, etc... hmmm.... I don't remember the President doing the same for Mubarak, so that shows you which side he's rooting for.

Many may say that we shouldn't interfere with a democratically-elected leader as that is what the people want.  I would agree... to a point:

1. Hitler was a democratically-elected leader, and when other countries intervened, it cost millions of lives and millions in treasure to stop him.

2. President Obama has already intervened...

A major risk at play is that if Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are completely cut out of Egypt's government, they may resort to armed struggle en masse.

Anyway, I think you'll find Chriss Street's article compelling...

Smitty

Chriss Street: Egypt Joins the Arab Winter