Pharaoh
It’s surprising to realize that the phrase “one man, one vote, one time” was initially a slogan for electoral reform; meant as the opposite to the slogan “vote early and often” which is now the beau ideal of liberals. “One man, one vote, one time” has now come to symbolize the cynical process by which strongmen use the democratic process to end it; using the vote to abolish voting. The principal has been restated by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan as “democracy is just a tool, not the aim. Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.”
The Egyptian President has reached the stop. Or in the words of Mohammed Morsi, the man from the Muslim Brotherhood who was hailed by the administration as the harbinger of democracy and savior of the peace in Gaza, “political stability, social stability and economic stability are what I want and that is what I am working for. I have always been, and still am, and will always be, God willing, with the pulse of the people, what the people want, with clear legitimacy.”
He was referring of course to his assumption of dictatorial powers over Egypt. In the purple prose of the surprised Guardian. “A febrile and polarised Egypt turned on itself on Friday as widespread protests spread across the country pitting supporters of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi against his political opponents over a controversial new decree granting him extensive new powers.” No one else was astonished. The words of the Guardian can be translated as ‘we on the Left thought the Muslim Brotherhood were Democrats. How foolish of the Egyptians to believe it.’
Now the judiciary will be ‘cleansed’. Morsi’s edicts are beyond judicial review. His powers are unlimited. As the AP puts it:
All laws and decisions by the president are final, cannot be appealed, overturned or halted by the courts or other bodies …
The president can take any steps or measures necessary to prevent threats to “the revolution, the life of the nation or national unity and security” or to the functioning of state institutions …
A new judiciary body of “protection of the revolution” is created to reopen investigations, prosecutions and trials of former regime officials, including ousted President Hosni Mubarak, for the killing of protesters during last year’s uprising.
In a word Morsi is the very kind of dictator which President Obama so vehemently denounced in Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian President had the decency to delay raising the Jolly Roger until he received billions in aid from the West via the IMF and until he had received billions in military aid from the most far-seeing administration in American history.
Yet all that Obama has changed by his touted “leading from behind” is in replacing one strongman friendly to the United States with a strongman opposed to it. The administration has the temerity to call this smart diplomacy. It is also another milestone on the road to a catastrophe in the Middle East.
Under his watch the Middle East has fallen apart. In fairness, perhaps it was going to do so anyway. Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria. The Kurds at daggers drawn with Baghdad. The Iranians on the verge of a nuclear bomb. Hamas in Gaza newly rewarded with a sanctuary. Yet in the view of the administration things have never been better; peace has never been closer. No administration has ever thought itself more enlightened.
But perhaps the better word is blinded. The Middle East is a powderkeg. Egypt is on the verge of running out of both money and food. Morsi’s pharaonic scepter is cardboard, bought and paid for by the Obama administration. Libya is now overrun by al-Qaeda rebels, who whenever they are inflamed by videos produced by unknowns in LA, overrun the odd American diplomatic facility. Jordan is rocking on its foundations. Syria is already engulfed in civil war.
None of these things have happened suddenly. But with a breathtaking dishonesty each disaster has been represented as progress towards democratic peace; tokens of intelligent diplomacy when they were the very opposite: a terrible march to catastrophe orchestrated by a dishonest and ultimately incompetent administration.
It will be recalled how Hillary Clinton reassured the public of Morsi’s democratic bona fides when he purged the Egyptian army. “US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met on Sunday with Egypt’s military chief, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, and urged him to work with the country’s new Islamist leaders on a full transition to civilian rule. … But with the U.S. having already approved yet another massive delivery of military aid, it was unclear what leverage the Obama administration has as it seeks to stabilize Egypt and build a new relationship with America’s once ironclad Arab ally.” And what a package it was.
In 2011, the U.S. gave over $1.3 billion in military aid to the Egyptian government. According to the Congressional Research Service, 30 percent of the aid package to Egypt is typically dedicated to the development of new weapons systems…
Egypt also receives “hundreds of millions of dollars” a year in Excess Defense Articles, or military hardware that the U.S. no longer needs. In 2008, the U.S. sent 300 “excess” Chaparral Missiles to the Egyptian military; in 2006, it sent two Continuous Wave Acquisition Radar systems and a missile transporter. The U.S. doesn’t just give the Egyptian military its obsolete weapons — it helps the country produce new weapons as well. The M1A1 Abrams Tank (which has been replaced by the next-generation M1A2 in America’s armored corps) is assembled and partly produced in Cairo, with the help of U.S. personnel and contractors.
But the relationship goes beyond hardware, research, and production. The U.S. and Egyptian military engage in extensive bilateral training operations, including Bright Star, a program that the Congressional Research Service describes as “a multinational training exercise … that helps foster the interoperability of U.S. and Egyptian forces and provides specialized training opportunities for U.S. Central Command Forces (CENTCOM) in the Middle East.” The Egyptians also have the unusual ability to keep the monetary component of their military aid in an interest-bearing American bank account.
Congressional leaders warned at the time award of aid of the dangers inherent in the deal. But they went unheeded probably because the critics did not have the nice coiffure, expensive suits and scripted demeanor that some associate with sophistication.
What did Hillary promise Morsi as a reward for getting Obama off the hook on Gaza?
As the election showed, many in the public continue to believe that the administration is idealistically pursuing a program of peace. What it may really be embarked upon is a policy of buying off American enemies for temporary political gain. It was a case of anything to help Obama win in 2012. Now comes the anything.
One of probable reasons why the debacle in Benghazi had been downplayed, why Susan Rice lied famously to the public and why the danger signals were so fecklessly ignored was because nobody dared point out the increasingly obvious: the administration’s policy has been foolishness on a scale matched only by its vanity.
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“Yet all that Obama has changed despite his touted “leading from behind” is in replacing one strongman friendly to the United States with a strongman opposed to it. This is called smart diplomacy. No other praise can do it justice.”
How about “Leading From The Hinder”?
Faro – A game played in Mississippi River gambling dens.
He was referring of course to his assumption of dictatorial powers over Egypt.
Now he has just about the Obambus has here in the country previously known as the USA.
The only thing separating Morsi and Obama is…
well, on second thought, there really isn’t anything.
I am reminded of a quote by a Pogo comic strip character:
“From here on up, it’s downhill all the way.”
Morsi makes himself Islamic-style
dictatorPharoah of Egypt, a failing state. It needs about 5 billion a year or so to keep alive. This brings up a few questions:1. How does the Egyptian military stand in all this? What are they going to do in the near future?
2. What is O’s real agenda in all this? Is he the Great Appeaser™ who thinks he is doing brilliant works of diplomacy, but is really delusional, and will get us all killed. Or he consciously working for the Islamics (and will get us all killed)? Either way, he will enable mass death and destruction to the ME.
I expect the “smart diplomacy” to ignore the new democracy protesters in Egypt just as it did in Iran two years ago. Israel will soon be surrounded by radical Islamic states. The new Final Solution is just a matter of time between Iran and Sunni nuclear capabilities.
@5
You’re way off: try $ 30,000,000,000 per annum. (!)
THAT’S Morsi’s ‘nut.’
1) Tourism = dead
2) Suez = hanging by a thread: open conflict will price it out of business at Lloyds.
3) Oil = netted off — now Egypt is a net importer ( Cyrenaica, watch out )
4) Food = 50% of subsistence demand — famine, dead ahead
5) Exports = poverty, hatred, despair — gluts on the market
========
We should expect the Wan to open our borders — for compassionate reasons — to a tidal wave of refugees.
What could go wrong?
Re.#7 “We should expect the Wan to open our borders — for compassionate reasons — to a tidal wave of refugees.”
yay!! Arabs from gaza, west bank,etc. in NJ and MI. We are all palestinians now! yay!
What is Obama’s part in all this? What is the long game? What does he truly believe?
From the essence of “Dreams of My Father”, he does believe in socialism, genuine Third World “liberation” movements, utterly opposed to the American “hegemony” in world affairs.
Many here (including me) hoped that George Bush’s “Operation Iraqi Freedom” would oust the vile dictator and gangster Saddam Hussein and give the Iraqi people a chance to form a “democracy”. This was widely ridiculed on the Left, for a host of reasons.
We wagered billions of dollars and thousands of lives to try to make it work. We did get rid of Saddam, but the aftermath does not look hopeful.
Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Hillary Clinton, and the rest believe in something else. It may work or not, be valid or not, but they think it will be “genuine” and legitimate.
Well, Adolf Hitler was certainly genuine in his belief of “Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Fuhrer!”
Funny how often these guys will tell us exactly what they mean, but somehow the smart set just knows better. Ya know?
So Obama may on one hand, idealistically believe in the genuine nature of the Egyptian “spring” and what will come to pass, and yet at the same time cynically recognize the rise to power of another dikto-crat that may hold some small allegiance to Obama and give him an opening to “negotiate”.
The Egyptians, unlike the more shrewd and productive Chinese, like the color of our money. Considering the truly awful economy (if you can call it that) that exists in Egypt, that may be the best they can hope for. The Egyptians seem to be just as innumerate about money and wealth as the Democratic Party in the US. Let’s get them driver’s licenses and let them vote!
Chaos, death, war and destruction. The next act in the never ending saga of the Middle East and Islam. All the US Military aid will either end up in the hands of the Chinese or burned up on the battlefield of the next war with Israel. Or just be allowed to turn to junk, which is probably the most likely outcome.
Well in this Hamas Israel flare up there was one winner: And it was not Israel or the U.S. Meet your new Pharaoh, same as the old Pharaoh!
“…the administration’s policy has been foolishness on a scale matched only by its vanity.”
Those are what passes for enlightment and genius in today’s dictatorship of the stupid.
NewsMax:
Did Obama Allow Morsi to Become a Tyrant in Exchange for Hamas Ceasefire? “A day after the ceasefire, Morsi assumed near-dictatorial powers in Egypt. The timing of that is not likely to be a coincidence.”
Seen on Twitter: “Big Brotherhood Morsi goes dictator (Don’t worry, Team Obama is zeroing in on the video responsbile for this …) “
We are wearing ourselves out, trying discern a pattern where, I suspect, none exists.
This is truly ad hoc foreign policy.
Somewhere up ahead the bridge has been washed away by the raging waters, but our duly elected engineer and crew are steadily shoveling coal to an engine that was denied water at the last stop.
Will the overpressured boiler blow before we get to the missing bridge? Does it really matter?
I have the uneasy premonition that our wondrous light bringer will decide that Morsi is a role model to be emulated. He is already ruling by decree known as ‘executive orders’. What is the difference?
Obama seems to be taking on the role of Wilson and Islam the role of Germany.
Will WW III be a reprise from 100 years ago?
Will we ever learn that appeasement rarely works for long, careful crocs ahead Mr Smee.
RE-HARAKHTY
Some gods were born, while others died
Like Jupiter and Seth
But Horus lives though many tried
To bring Harakhty’s death
But he in Morsi liveth still
At dawn he may be seen
Come soaring over nearby hill
His wings and flags bright green
A Pharaoh’s bird the falcon soars
Delighted to be free
As Morsi trods Egyptian shores
The lord of land and sea
He just got 5bil tribute. Of course he is pharaoh.
Hmm, the United States of Arabs, the US of A. It sounds remarkably familiar.
What Willie G said @ 13
They may think they know what they are doing, but it is just making things up as they go.
Thus has it been, to one degree on another, for every Democratic Admin since Chimmea Cahata.
Israel and Egypt got together on their own after the Yom Kipper War, decided to make peace and concluded this ought to be good for some bucks from the USA. So the Camp David Roll The Southern Boy, uh, Peace Accords resulted.
Bill Clinton lusted for a Nobel so much that he insisted that the Israelis give away the farm, the ranch and part ownership of the condo in town to satisfy the PLO. His plans to satisfy Syria as well fell through when the government there pointed out that if Warren Christopher made one more visit to Damascus they would require he get a green card. In the end Old Bill knew he had been rolled.
Now, Obama hands off a few billion more to make sure that the IDF does not clean Hamas’ clock and to make sure that Hamas can buy some more dirty clocks, just in case. He does not even care if he gets rolled; it’s not his money anyway. And every time he gets rolled it turns out well for him, personally.
PT Barnum observed that there is a sucker born every minute. The Obama Admin as well as the election results from 6 Nov reveal that the production rate has gone up considerably.
Nobody ever seems to point out the real advantage of democracy over other forms of governance. It does not lie in finding better rulers. Goodness knows, elections can lead to awful people taking power, and there is no particular reason to believe that a leader chosen some other way might not be better. The advantage of democracy lies in its supplying a straightforward means of succession; that is of getting rid of administrations that the populace no longer supports.
The alternatives to democracy in arranging succession that history provides us with are either hereditary monarchy, or chaos.
In the Roman Empire, the death of an Emperor was typically followed by a war among those ambitious to take his place. The same was true among the Mongols and the Mughals. The new Turkish Sultan typically murdered all his contemporary relatives on taking power, to prevent rivalry. Getting rid of an obnoxious ruler or one who had outlived his popularity, in the absence of democracy requires a war.
Thus the notion of “one election once” is not really democracy at all. It jettisons all the advantages that democracy provides.
I suspect the president and his administration will come to regret this second term.
It’s like the golden age of Andalusia: MoreSi¡
How about we just stay out of it.