What’s the Matter with Egypt?
In the Stars or in Them?
So what’s the matter with Egypt? The same thing that is the matter with most of the modern Middle East: in the post-industrial world, its hundreds of millions now are vicariously exposed to the affluence and freedom of the West via satellite television, cell phones, the Internet, DVDs, and social networks.
And they become angry that, in contrast to what they see and hear from abroad, their own lives are unusually miserable in the most elemental sense. Of course, there is no introspective Socrates on hand and walking about to remind the Cairo or Amman Street that their corrupt government is in some part a reification of themselves, who in their daily lives see the world in terms of gender apartheid, tribalism, religious intolerance, conspiracies, fundamentalism, and statism that are incompatible with a modern, successful, capitalist democracy.
That is, a century after the onset of modern waste treatment science, many of the cities in the Middle East smell of raw sewage. A century after we learned about microbes and disease, the water in places like Cairo is undrinkable from the tap. Six decades after the knowledge of treating infectious disease, millions in the Middle East suffer chronic pain and suffer from maladies that are easily addressed in the West. And they have about as much freedom as the Chinese, but without either the affluence or the confidence. That the Gulf and parts of North Africa are awash in oil and gas, at a time of both near record prices and indigenous control of national oil treasures, makes the ensuing poverty all the more insulting.
The Old Two-Step
All this has been true for forty years, but, again, instant global communications have brought the reality home to the miserable of the Middle East in a way state-run newspapers and state-censored television never could even had they wished.
In reaction, amid this volatile new communications revolution, the Saddams, the Mubaraks, the Saudi royals, the North African strongmen, and all the other “kings” and “fathers” and “leaders” found an effective enough antidote: The Jews were behind all sorts of plots to emasculate Arab Muslims. And the United States and, to a lesser extent, Great Britain were stealing precious resources that robbed proud Middle Easterners of their heritage and future. Better yet, there was always a Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, or, for the more high-brow, a Jimmy Carter to offer a useful exegesis of American conspiracy, oil-mongery, or Zionist infiltration into the West Wing that “proved” Middle East misery was most certainly not self-induced.
We know the old Middle East two-step that then followed the party line. A Gaddafi or Saddam or a Saudi prince on the sly turned a blind eye to jihadists, or funded them, or in some ways subsidized them — on the condition that they embodied popular outrage but diverted it from Middle Eastern authoritarians to Americans and Israelis. The more “friendly” and “pro-Western” (and the Saudis and the Pakistanis were the past masters at this) would then come to us, deplore terrorism, promise to crack down on it, but also insist that their own thugocracies and kleptocracies were the only fingers in the dike that held back the flood of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Iranian-like theocracy, etc.. Ergo, we were to give money or support or both to those that two-timed us, on the premise that the alternative was surely worse.
And the Response is?
I think the American response was usually over the decades twofold: One, we were to sigh, “Well, Mubarak’s an SOB but he at least is ours and not sending out terrorists to blow up Americans in Lebanon or Saudi Arabia, and he keeps the peace with Israel.” Two, we were to talk grandly of a meaningless West Bank “peace process.” Since our friendly dictators were terrified of their own, they simultaneously winked at terrorists who went after us rather than them, and blamed Israel for the “tension” in the Middle East (yes, the Jews should be behind the corrupt officials who tried to shake down a poor Tunisian one too many times, driving him to self-conflagration — and the ensuing wildfire into the Middle East). The more we promised to pressure Israel, the more we could ignore the misery of Cairo, and the more a thieving Mubarak could perpetuate it.
Pre-Bush Republican realists usually allowed all this in service to “national security,” as in no repeat of the fall of the shah, or the 1970s oil embargoes, or the near disastrous Yom Kippur War and tardy American logistical effort. Democrats did the above as often, but more cleverly added a multicultural, relativist twist of “who are we to judge other systems and cultures when our own is at fault as well (fill in the race, class, gender blanks)?” No one seemed to wish an Eisenhower 1956 Suez solution of rebuking our allies, standing up for principle — and thereby aiding the likes of Nasser and the USSR, while alienating and humiliating our European friends (unforgotten to this day) and Israel.
The New Realities
So what is the matter with Egypt? Why cannot the above mess just keep on keeping on? A number of newer twists.
1) We are not so sure that Mubarak’s “it is us or the jihadists” is quite operative any more, given the defeat of jihadists in Iraq and the downward spiral in approval of bin Laden. In any case, there seems no Khomeini-like figure on the horizon in the radical Islamist Arab world. And to be one, there would have to be, as in Khomeini’s case in France, lots of Western appeasement and subsidies. After 9/11, not even a France wishes to embrace an Islamist and create another Khomeini. The result is that when Mubarak and Co. threaten us with the Muslim Brotherhood, we are not quite convinced, as in the past, that it will hijack the street as Khomeini once did. Thus in the last week we have gone from Biden’s Mubarak “not a dictator” to an “evolving,” finger-in-the-wind stance — in hopes that the Shah-Banisadr-Khomeini formula is not inevitable (yet in this regard, remember that 160,000 U.S. troops played quite a role in stopping the Iraq possible cycle of Saddam-Allawi-Zarqawi).
2) Iraq changed things, and in subtle and as of yet not easily fathomable fashion. When Reagan shouted at the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union most surely did not come down for four years. But when it did, in hindsight we can see that such symbolic confrontations, along with the military challenges, insidiously exposed and weakened the corrupt system. When Saddam was routed (had a Middle Eastern thug ever been put on trial?), and the insurrection mostly crushed, and a consensual government in power in Baghdad survived for seven years amid the most unlikely chances for survival, then the Middle East (as the Saudis rightly knew and double-dealed as a result) was not quite the same.
Iran is desperate to strangle a free Iraq, since its nearby free media has a tendency to encourage things like the 2009 uprising across the border. Yet to suggest that Bush unleashed in 2003 a revolutionary chain of events is heretical. In our twisted political calculus, Bush is demonic for speaking out for human rights and removing Saddam, Obama is progressive for ignoring human rights protestors in the streets of Khomeinist Iran.
3) I don’t particularly like Mubarak and will be glad to see him leave, but please spare us the condemnation that we “made” him. We did not. He is a reflection of the pathologies that were outlined above, and would have to be invented had he not existed. He could not have come to power without an underlining culture of tribalism, gender apartheid, religious intolerance, and statism. And he has less blood on his hands than did the once beloved “authentic” Nasser (whose use of poison gas in Yemen provided the revolutionary model for Saddam in Kurdistan and at the time bothered no one in Nasserite Egypt).
4) What’s next? “Finger-in-the-wind” diplomacy may work for a while, but it requires deftness that follows conditions on the street in a nanosecond to avoid appearing purely cynical (a skill beyond Hillary, Biden, and Obama). I think in this bad/worse choice scenario we might as well support supposedly democratic reformers, with the expectation that they could either fail in removing Mubarak or be nudged out by those far worse than Mubarak. Contrary to popular opinion, I think Bush was right to support elections in Gaza “one time” (only of course). The Gazans got what they wanted, we are done with them, and they have to live with the results, happy in their thuggish misery, with a prosperous Israel and better-off West Bank to remind them of their stupidity. All bad, but an honest bad and preferable to the lie that there were thousands of Jeffersonians in Gaza thwarted by the U.S.
So step back and watch it play out with encouragement for those who oppose both Mubarak and the Muslim Brotherhood— hoping for the best, expecting the worst.
Your point 4) is particularly good. The last two sentences of it speak to that which distinguishes the “aristocrat” from the “democrat” in Jefferson’s formulation and distinguishes between those who are prepared to deal with the world as it is rather than as they imagine it should be.
Point 2 is the best point.
Bush (hated by the elites and a “dunce”) changed everything by winning in Iraq.
But Obama (loved by the elites) blew it in Iran when he had his chance.
Here’s hoping Mrs. Clinton saves the incompetent Obama.
– having to implement the Samson Plan, target the Pyramids and Persepolis. When the world must end, then let no visiting alien race find a trace of those civilizations on Earth’s surface.
FWIW, the Pyramids and Persepolis, like the flowers that bloom in the spring (tra-la), have nothing to do with the case. The Muslims of Egypt and Persia regard the eras before the coming of Islam to their lands as “jahiliya,” the time of ignorance, from which Islamic civilization has nothing to learn, being in itself perfect and complete. The heirs of ancient Egypt are the Copts, and those of the Persian Empire the Parsees, both despised minorities in what was once THEIR countries and the homes of THEIR ancient cultures. In other words, the vast majorities of both nations are taught, and believe, that they were lucky to be conquered by the Arabs and saved from themselves.
Which leads to the question: Why is colonialism/imperialism OK with the bien-pensant Left when Muslims impose it?
Throw in Mecca and Rome too.
Well its a lot easier to look at the tv and envy what your neighbors have. Its the same deal with Marxism. If your neighbor has more, he must have got it through nefarious methods. Its not your fault. Its not your religion, your government, your tribe, your education, your culture, your natural resources, or your legal system. So plan and plot to conquer your neighbor, then steal his wealth. After Israel, the United States is next.
Great article. The only minor point I would make is, Reagan made the Berlin Wall speech in ’87 and it came down in ’89. The USSR fell in ’91.
Well, the Empire was dissolved, anyway. I’ll take what I can get.
Fearless facts and insightful ideas that rock reality. Thomas Friedman was right, “The World Is Flat,” and, I might add, getting flatter. With the internet being The Great Equalizer one can only wonder how long before the next dominoe falls.
Lots of good wisdom, as usual, from vdh.
But let’s go a couple of steps farther. There is no significant difference between the Middle East, and world-wide marxists, other than light years differences in technology. The political systems are the same: thumb-screw tyranny. So our own home-grown marxists not only don’t have any issues with the Islamic totalitarians, one suspects they envy them. Little lenin isn’t going to interfere. a) it’s a speed-bump on his rush to global dominance, b) he couln’t pick a favorite among Mubarrak, terrorists or the other salivating vultures arguing about a shin bone….they all look good to little lenin, and c) he is far far too incompetant to be effective unless his mafia buds are moving his lips, so why bother with something a gazillion miles away.
I hear the talking heads on Fox chatty cathying about democracy in Egypt. What fools. Everytbody knows that the outcome is going to be one of three: most probable, a new Iran; next most, a new thug or group of thugs; or least; Mubarak beats down the mish mash of “protestors” to the cost of a hundred thou or so of them dead (clearly the best feasible outcome).
And isn’t it curious this is happening so soon after little lenin was so wounded in November. The killers and thieves in Egypt obviously fear they might not have the fledgling uberfuhrer’s support for much longer.
There is a significant difference between worldwide marxists and what is going on in the Middle East.
Marxism has, in the rest of the world, a virtual existence; it exists in the rhetoric of seminar rooms, coffee shops and other sophist havens. What is going on in the ME is rooted in the real hard world of the economy and demographics.
The economy has moved from agricultural to industrial; the population has exploded in size, and moved from rural to urban. BUT, the political infrastructure has remained the same!!! Tribal or two-class, with a small set of kin-based elite Rulers. And the mass. This won’t work in an industrial, massive population scenario.
You must, with these basic realities, move into a civic mode of governance that empowers and creates a middle class – made up of private business (not state business), entrepreneurs, private property. This is what is going on in the ME – that tectonic shift between these two modes: tribal and civic. It isn’t easy and it may well go through a brief ‘phase 2′ of yet another type of repression – the Utopian Repression of Fundamentalism.
But fundamentalism is just another form of tribalism. It’s two class, it’s elitist and authoritarian…and finally, it collapses because it takes too much energy to repress a population of that size.
You took it too literally. I was speaking metaphorically. Obviously, there are substantial differences. You only touched on them.
But I was talking about the political frameworks of totalitarianism and pointing out that marxism and Islam are both savage and ruthless, barbaric. I often say that there are dozens of such frameworks throughout history, but they all end up in the same place..complete power. If you are a worm under their heels, it doesn’t matter to the serf if the coffehouses support one vs the other. You can also make a case there that even the political frameworks are different, but I would counter argue that the fundamental of both is simply total dominance.
Little lenin likes both frameworks.
The core of Islamic culture makes this all a mess. Islam justifies and encourages the cult of the strong man. It will be another strong man.
ahh- now you’ve explained it. Of course I agree with you. Marxism and Islamism, or socialism/communism and tribalism are indeed similar.
Both are two-class, with a set of Elite Rulers who usually are or become kin-based and dynastic…and the Ruled. Who are nothing. There’s no middle class of free individuals engaged in private business.
Both systems are statist, collectivist, anti-freedom, anti-individual, anti-reason, dogma..etc, etc.
I’m saying that such a structure, and it is a structure, can only operate within a non-industrial, medium population. It can’t operate in an industrial, multimillion size population..because that size and that energy-content of the economy requires too much ‘force’ (theologic, military, totalitarian) to repress deviances. And deviation-from-the-norm is inevitable in a large size complex population/economy.
“I’m saying that such a structure, and it is a structure, can only operate within a non-industrial, medium population”
Bingo.
Green energy, Crap and Tax, Obamacare, Eliminate small businesses, Regulate regulate regulate, Margninalize religion, Control communications, Control the internet, Control transportation, Shut-down speech, Disarm the public ——> Middle Ages ——-> Total power ——> Harems, Infinite wealth, No rules for the powerful, Wagu beef, Watermellon cores, Palaces, Dominance.
Erase the 230 year speed-bump of history. Back to the status quo.
What’s the matter with Egypt?
From the last 2010 Pew Research poll of Egypt-
Stoning for those who commit adultery, 82% in favor.
Whippings and cutting off hands for robbery, 77% in favor.
Death penalty for converting from Islam, 84% in favor .
Support for “modernizers” , 27% in favor.
Support for “Islamists,” 59% in favor.
The Muslim Brotherhood won 60% of all contested seats in the last Egyptian election.
ElBaradie has been a shill for Iran for years. He is now the ” chosen one ” for both the Muslim Brotherhood and Obama.
Makes one think, doesn’t it.
How about some hard data on these percentages? I taught research methods for years and wouldn’t accept this as reliable. Why not? Take a look at some other PEW results.
Question on ‘role of Islam in politics’. Large role?
Pakistan: 46%
Question on ‘Islam’s influence in politics’ [a version of the previous question-
Egypt: 85% positive role.
Huh?????
Question on identifying with moderates or fundamentalist:
Pakistan – 61% with moderates, 28% with fundamentalists
Egypt – 27% with moderates, 59% with fundamentalists.
Huh?????
These ratios don’t match up what’s going on in reality. So – I don’t accept those PEW results until I know the exact questions, the demographics of the population surveyed, and so on. Until then – this is not reliable data.
Questions concerning the datasets may be directed to the Pew Global Attitudes Project at info@pewglobal.org.
Do you mean to say that you accepted that data without knowing the methodology, the questions asked and the demographic nature of the respondents???
As I just showed you, with the unreliable answers to similar questions – there is something wrong with the surveys. You can’t have contrary responses to questions that essentially mean the same thing! And – you can’t have answers that contradict the reality on the ground – and yet, you do. So, there is something wrong with the surveys.
Your presumption that ” something is wrong ” has less merit than mine which presumes the surveys are accurate. Pew is a well respected polling organization and I see know evidence or accusation from anyone other than yourself that they did not use acceptable polling methodology. If you are serious you can address your concerns to Pew and see if they respond. With no facts to support your position
you are simply wasting everyones time.
Makes one think about what? Makes me glad I don’t live in Egypt.
Like VDH correctly points out – our hands are tied.
Death penalty for converting from Islam, 84% in favor.
Support for “modernizers,” 27% in favor.
There’s an 11% crossover there. 11% of the people are very confused, if this is the case.
I guess they’re thinking, “Yeah, I’d like to kill apostates, and I’d like to do it with some very modern techniques, like maybe a destruct-o-beam or something.”
it is happening now because your weak horse in the white house ..same as what happened in iran with the jimmy peanut carter.
if bush was in we would not be seeing this. and I didn’t really like bush. but at least he wasn’t a shemale
it is the perfect sh!t storm and the muslim brotherhood will ride it.
these countries have had a good and easy look at the western freedom etc for decades. every house has had satellite TV at levels higher then ours for a long time. this is not a spontaneous uprising. the ground work has been in place for sometime. and now with the USA nod-nod wink-wink it begins.
good luck to us all ..we are going to need it.
…I don’t want to live in my own excrement.
Weak horse? Maybe. I certainly get your point, but it assumes he wants an outcome that most other Americans would want. And that’s not likely.
My view is that he couldn’t care less about the outcome, but he is thrilled with the chaos. What community organizer wouldn’t be?
Unless, of course, the outcome begins to look like somebody who actually tolerates western civilization…in that case little lenin will have to intervene.
obuma has picked the muslim brotherhood.
it is scary and I prefer not to have to live in my own excrement …but I think it says we have to in the koran.
“All bad, but an honest bad and preferable to the lie that there were thousands of Jeffersonians in Gaza thwarted by the U.S.”
It spares me from my usual frustration, anyway, that it appears impossible for American governments not to speak out of both sides of their mouths!
I hope the Egyptians do better than the Iranians did, but it would be such a relief not to hear talk of democracy and freedom – if we approve of it. The painful truth is, when one gets to choose one’s leaders by the ballot box, one chooses the consequences of that vote. Even if the consequence is misery and oppression.
A fine diagnosis of what ails Egypt, too.
VDH: here’s hoping the Egyptians choice does not evolve into the same kind of deep do do that the Gazans choose for themselves.
However, our current administration has shown little ability to understand what’s happening over there or anywhere else. So, the Egyptians are on their own and all the USA government can or will do is to sermonize from a kneeing, sometimes prone, position.
Cheers.
“a skill beyond Hillary, Biden, and Obama”
The three stooges indeed, Carter all over again.
“a skill beyond Hillary, Biden, and Obama”
HBO?
“HBO”?
No…Barrack Hussein Omama!!!!! B H O!
The best one can hope for is that they become like turkey, Lebanon or Pakistan. For some reason I just cannot get exited about that.
Democracy or not, they’ll still hate us. If we don’t support them, they’ll hate us for not supporting them. If we support them, they’ll hate us for not supporting them enough.
How can you muster the energy to support someone, when you know, they’ll hate you regardless of what you do?
4000 Americans have lost their lives helping Iraq becoming a free country. Not a single Muslim on the planet has uttered a word of gratitude. Like the complete morons they are, they hate the US for that. I think the US political leadership should confront the Egyptians with that fact, now when the protesters are screaming for American support: “Will you thank us, if we help you?”
” Not a single Muslim on the planet has uttered a word of gratitude.”
Gratitude is not part of Islam. That is a Western middle class and Christian concept.
In Islam, If you do me a favor or are merciful towards me, you do so because you are weak. You are weak because Allah made you weak. Therefore why bother with conventions such as reciprocal favors, the practices of a gift economy and voluntary agreements. I should just take from you what Allah has enabled me to take.
Islam is a very different philosophical well to draw on. Like the Aztec religion.
….”Democracy or not, they’ll still hate us. If we don’t support them, they’ll hate us for not supporting them. If we support them, they’ll hate us for not supporting them enough.”….
Thank you, JL, for typing that out for all here to read. There are, of course, exquisitely subtle variations from the Janus facing “entities” of Twentieth Century Europe and East Asia, and such thinking has molded a substantial bit of the World’s contemporary thinking about America.
There seems to be no end to the elasticity applied to American financial “usefulness”.
Such rear/forward-facing opportunism is exemplified by the use of the expensive materiel we supplied to fight the Soviets in Central Asia being turned against us in that same area in these later years.
So, what happens now to those billions of dollars of tanks, aircraft and other armaments which we’ve supplied the Egyptians lo, these last thirty years? How long will it take for these to be clandestinely trans-shipped to the highest bidder by the Muslim Brotherhood or other “sleeper” faction lurking in the wings after the Stage Exit of Mubarak?
Pakistani..and..Iraq..and Afghan “democracy” are merely the vehicles du jour for disguising the continuing transfer of American cash among themselves and “offshore” accounts.
Add, now, this new Egyptian model.
We Americans need to come home, take care of our own problems, and our new defense strategy should be to break away from massed armies thousands and thousands of miles away where our presence is resented, but our cash welcomed. Let those Islamic decapitators be tightly contained among themselves.
Our cash is best used for trading, and job creation where healthy conditions permit.
I’m not going to sweat a few billion in aid while they’re collecting trillions in oil revenue. Besides, as soon as we stop training them and maintaining the equipment, it’s all worthless to them.
Of course they would say thank you. In order to get what they want. But they will be lying, they always are. And we (the present administration, their liberal sycophants, and America’s herd of non-thinking sheep)are too stupid to realize they are scamming us.
”Not a single Muslim on the planet has uttered a word of gratitude.”
That’s not entirely true: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyrStaIoh-w
Awww. That brought a few tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing that youtube link, I bookmarked it.
You’re welcome.
Hi JL,
FWIW I have heard, not frequently enough for me, an occaisional thank you from people in Iraq. The Kurds are rather quicker at this.
Excellent analysis by VDH. But, we must not ignore that tectonic shift that is taking place in the ME – and it’s about time.
You can’t have a massive proportion of a global economy operating within an economic mode and political mode that is out of sync with the rest of the globe.
The ME has been trapped within a tribal or two-class collectivist economic and political infrastructure – while the majority of the world has moved into a non-tribal civic mode and a three class industrial economy. It had to change. The ME was maintained, by itself, in this tribalism, by its using oil to fund its repression of its people. Repression in every way: economic – not enabling a middle class. Educational – not allowing the growth of a technological and scientific critical mass of the population.
It had to change – and it’s not an easy transformation. Forget the trivia of ‘they’ll hate us’ and the trivia of ‘we ought to maintain them in their old stable ways’. They MUST transform. It’s not easy. It took the West over 400 very bloody vicious years to transform from its medieval two-class to a three class system. So – let it happen.
The US and the West have to stay out. What they can do is not allow tribalism to move to the west – no multicultural ghettoes teeming in sophist rhetoric.
very sorry to hear this from you ETAB …I always thought you had a good take on world happenings.
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/01/30/video-when-egypt-is-free-we-will-be-able-to-destroy-israel/
the news is as bad as I can imagine. the muslim brotherhood with el-baradei as the face of the new democracy, backed by obama.
there will be less freedom for egyptians and possibly more wars.
this has unraveled just as I expected, not because I am smart but because it is so painfully obvious to any student of human nature and history.
a truly sad turn as I do not wish to live in my own excrement but it says in the koran that we all must.
Nonsense. So you think that the Egyptian people should continue to live within a corrupt tribal dictatorship – just because you assume that the only alternative for that – is Islamic fascism? Again, nonsense.
IF such a movement gains power, it will be short-lived. You – and so many others here, who are only focusing on ideology and rhetoric, are missing the key causal factors of societal organization. These are: the economy and the population size. OK?
Once your population moves into the multimillions, you must move into an industrial economy. And once your population moves to that size – you must also move to an urban spatial site rather than rural. This means that you must – because your population must be flexible (capable of moving from town to town); flexible (capable of learning new skills apart from agriculture); ..you must move to a CIVIC mode of organization.
A civic rather than a tribal mode is one that enables a middle class to emerge. A middle class is non-kin based, operates by individual economic and political freedom, and..can set up private businesses, engage in flexible market infrastructures etc. This class must be in political power. That means – a civic mode – which is democracy. Democracy is the only political mode that empowers the middle class. OK?
That’s basic..to ‘any student of history and societal structure’.
So- the Middle East must go through a tectonic shift from its old tribal two-class structure..and enable a middle class to have economic and political power. It’s not easy; it involves risk and doubt – and if you think that reverting to the utopian world of fundamentalism will solve this problem – it won’t. The population is too large, the economy has moved into industrialism. There is NO CHOICE but to move to the civic mode of a middle class.
” IF such a movement gains power, it will be short-lived. ”
Thats what some folks said about Iran. They were wrong. So are you.
Do not make the assumption that reducing the population and the economy back to its original state — a state that can support tribalism — is impossible for Islamists to accomplish. Remember what happened in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge came to power.
Nothing personal General, but could you please spare us the details of where you wish or wish not to live?
What people are ignoring here is one of the bigger problems of the Islamic world. That is the concept of humiliation. To have a middle class in a large society one must have mass production, medium or larger corporations or companies. That means management, middle-management, and employees.
In the life of a westerner, we may have had a screamer for a boss. We may have had to endure at times put-downs or otherwise humiliations from co-workers or bosses. We take it in stride or quit or endure because the money’s alright.
You don’t see industrial organization in the Islamic world anything like the west because if you humiliate another, he may just kill you. So it’s that much more difficult to grow a middle class.
I thought from the beginning that a key reason to go into Iraq was to enable another political model, and after 5 years, dubya was finally able to get it started.
With little lenin and his anti-semite capos pulling the strings, those 5 years of blood and money appear to be totally wasted. The only hope is that 4 years isn’t enough to completely undo that good work completely.
It would have been a stretch anyway, even with dubya’s determination. Without an American President, the most bloodthirsty will win in the Middle East.
Some people are capable of breaking a crow-bar in a sand-box…
It would appear Obama is of this ilk…
I’ve been waiting and waiting to hear from VDH on this. I knew it was going to be a superb analysis, the best of anything I was yet to read. A million thank yous to VDH.
Let there be no doubt that BHO is voting ”present” during this Middle East crisis.
Shouldn’t it be finally possible to DEFINE a foreign entity that MUST be considered OUR friend? If we only gave aid to those that repeatedly demonstrated fealty to the U.S. First Amendment I’d feel much better about our foreign policy. GE could continue to work with Iran without governmnet bailouts. Cuba and Chavez could sit in their own economnic disaster without Code Pink demanding tax supports for their friends. Saudi Arabia would learn that visas to terrorists are becoming dear. Whatever. Adventures head our way because we don’t believe in defining freedom for others.
How many Americans will have to die to before we do what must be done, and require that all muslim countries:
1. declare that terroism is a violation of civil and Islamic law.
2. prosecute any terrorists within their borders.
3. establish freedom of religious practice, including freedom to convert.
4. establish equal rights for women and all ethnic minorities within their borders.
5. establish a democratic form of government with free elections.
Then announce that any country that will not meet these demands will be placed on a list, and the members of that list will be assumed to be the source of any attack on America or Americans worldwide, and encourage the leaders of those countries to imagine what will happen if a WMD attack occurs on America or Americans anywhere.
Don’t think America has the right to issue such demands? Then you must believe that America has no right to defend itself, because only such demands, backed by the threat of terrible consequences, will have any effect on those who would kill all of us had they the opportunity.
George W. Bush said, ‘You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists.’
This is one of the few times I can say in a most heartfelt manner: No sxxt, sherlock. I might add that failure to accept these simple humane “demands” means no more give-away dough from Uncle Sam unless there is a disaster of nature in their lands.
“How many Americans will have to die to before we do what must be done”
What we must do is become energy independent. Nobody cares about Islam, Muslims, Caliphates and the rest of it. 80% of the worlds oil production comes from OPEC countries. Half of that comes from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Libya. They would be nothing without our petro-dollars. Jimmy Carter was the last president to declare an energy policy. Here we are 30 plus years later still using 25% of the worlds oil output mostly from countries that don’t like us.
Thank you for framing this issue in a useful, thought-provoking way. As usual, VDH and the commenters have provided much food for thought.
Meanwhile: “All bad, but an honest bad and preferable to the lie …” certainly sums up the ongoing ME situation nicely.
Some people here are overly optimistic.
“So what’s the matter with Egypt? The same thing that is the matter with most of the modern Middle East..”
The answer is simple and it also applies to failed states outside the ME such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Algeria, Tunesia and in a lesser degree to countries such as Albania, Turkey and Marocco.
The simple answer is…Islam.
The people in those countries are still living in the 7th century, according to the traditions and rules laid down by the Quran (The immutable, unchanged, and unchangeable word of God) as revealed to his messenger, the warlord Muhammad (‘The perfect man’, to be emulated by all Muslims.).
Read the Quran. and read the Hadith (mohammed’s actions and sayings)and you can see why those countries are in such a mess.
And no, they cannot change…
Unless they want to commit bidah.
Bid‘ah is any type of innovation in Islam. Though innovations in worldly matters, such as science, medicine and technology is acceptable for some but not all, Bid`ah within the religion is seen as a sin.
“Whosoever originates an innovation in this matter of ours that is not a part of it, will have it rejected.”
“This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.”
Allah knows best…
And bid’ah is punishable by death!
Let them drink deep from Islam and march further backwards. In 30 years they we know what young Iranians know today.
An excellent piece. I’d have liked to hear VDH’s take on the pro-thug protests here at home.
An “honest bad.” I’ll take that any day over the blatant lies that assume we’re all on the government-gravy train and don’t care that we’re being lied to, ‘long as the stash keeps comin.’
This is the first optimistic assessment I’ve seen.
Egypt is the most fascinating country I’ve seen, and I found the people to over-the-top friendly and welcoming to me as an American. My hope is that the antiquities are safe and the future full of promise for the ones who seek to live in a tolerant and peaceful world.
I guess we’ll see.
Thanks again VDH.
VDH,
Bravo!
Your eloquence is just amazing. I could not have believed that someone can describe extremely complex situation in such clear, concise and brief way. Thank you very much.
I do wonder, however, what will happen with US aid and how Egypt’s relations with Israel will be affected, assuming the worse outcome. Will BHO continue to pour money into regime that would be openly hostile? Will he have guts to stop the aid? I guess all we can do is wait, but I am not holding my breath regarding current administration’s ability to handle this (or any other) crisis.
I think he will support them with an open heart…not for a love of peace or America, but a love of them and belonging
I hate to say it but, IMHO, BHO will continue to throw aid dollars at Egypt no matter the outcome. It’s just another Cloward-Piven taxpayer subsidized sink hole to exploit.
“All bad, but an honest bad”
Great line. Let the Egyptians sort it out themselves. A 35 year old Egyptian has never heard the roar of Israeli jets over Cairo. They aren’t protesting to go back to that. Egypt can’t feed itself, it will have to act somewhat reasonably.
Victor ended with:
“So step back and watch it play out with encouragement for those who oppose both Mubarak and the Muslim Brotherhood— hoping for the best, expecting the worst.”
Well, I guess we all will; but that isn’t the issue. The issue is, what should we (the US, that is) do (or rather be doing) to affect the outcome, if anything?
A number of articles have been written here in PJM, by a number of individuals on the current events in Egypt and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and many comments have been supplied by many readers. At the end, no clear consensus seems to be emerging, and no concrete set of recommendations have been put forward that would enjoy a widespread support, even among us – conservatives. This isn’t surprising, and due to many factors. However, looking at these factors isn’t the main point of my post. Instead, my aim here is to search for the basic collateral effects of the crisis in that part of the World, as seen by someone who isn’t from there and doesn’t care about “there” as much as about “here.” Now, for those who will immediately jump to the dictum ‘but the “there” affects the “here”‘ I’ll say, thank you very much – I know that and this is why I’ve writen this post.
We in the West often get tangled up in policy details, nuancing, over-analyzing etc to such an extent that we tend to lose sight of the forest for the trees, as the saying goes. And that is what is going on with this issue too. Let’s focus on what is basically going on and how is this crisis affecting us, the US, now and in the foreseeable future, and what demands from us, conservatives, to do.
What is happening is quite simple and clear: islam is on the attack, against local regimes friendly, or at least neutral, to the West (Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan). The current occupant of the WH is someone very friendly (and I put it here quite mildly) to islam and so is his leftist base. We, the people of this country (at the left and the right, as well as center) know that, and they (the islamists) know that too. The WH occupant won’t do anything to fight islam and islamists, to the contrary he will assist them in their aims. To him islam is more important than America as we, conservatives define America.
Now, what can we (the conservatives, that is) do? Use this as an additional reason, and hopefully as the last straw, to seek the IMPEACHMENT of the current occupant of the WH, when he openly decides to side with the “muslim brotherhood.” Patriots, don’t get disoriented, don’t lose sight of the main goal, no matter what is happening in the Middle East or elsewhere in the World, or who over there does what to whom. Our main opponent isn’t Tunisia, Jordan or Egypt under any type of regime; our enemy is islam’s expansion and above all its instrument sitting now in the Oval Office.
…the POTUS is calling turkey’s Erdogan (a mouthpiece of islamists and the ‘muslim brotherhood’) for advice. Great.
There’re two Americas, and one is the enemy of the other. What is happening in the Middle East is because of who’s the President here.
Weltanschauung is the reason for the Muslim troubles.
Jews and Christians think the Universe was organized by God according to reason and it is up to us to find out the rules God set in motion from the beginning. Muslims differ. They believe the Universe is ordered to the will of God which is inscrutable and unpredictable. For example the sun rises in the East everyday yet that does not mean that God may make it rise over the North Pole if He so pleases one day to confound the wise.
This little theological difference gives us Einstein and Newton for the Judeo-Christian side. On the other side Jabal Al Tarik and the Iranian Mullahs…
So… if you want indoor plumbing and good water hit the Summa or the Torah and move from there…
Hanson: “I think Bush was right to support elections in Gaza “one time” (only of course). The Gazans got what they wanted, we are done with them, and they have to live with the results…”
Exactly how are we “done with them”? The US continues as the largest contributor to UNRWA.The bulk of the PA’s budget – including that funded by the US – is passed on to Hamas-dominated Gaza. When the PA recently announced a budgetary shortfall, it was US funding to the rescue. After the deaths on the Turkish flotilla attempting to break the legal blockade of Gaza, it was the US that pressured Israel to establish a committee to “investigate” the matter with international participation. And it is the US that is ever ready to call for a “donors conference” to address Gaza’s needs, even if they are self-inflicted.
Because it looks as if the intention of the Administration and State is politically motivated to continue the grinding process, displaying the hypocrisy in their thinking, and not about responsibility and justice leading to freedom and independence for the canon fodder.
The USA has tied itself to the ME by squarely placing its economic foundation on global petroleum distribution system ;
the Petro-Dollar. Every action in the ME, by default or design reflects this shortsighted and illogical move by President Nixon and ensuing Presidents, House and Senate, to maintain this ignorant system. This move has taken decades to play out, but rapidly coming to a tipping point.
We have been pouring tens of Billions into Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and every other ME nation since that fateful day in 1971 when the US dollar became Dependant on petroleum sales, in fact over 30% of total foreign Aid is earmarked for Egypt and Israel alone. Over 80% of that aid, is for the Military procurement. In addition to giving away free weaponry, We spend 25 Billion a Year with intelligence agencies trying to maintain scales of Balance in the ME.
The foreign policy decision was to flood the ME with expensive high tech weaponry for decades, paid for by US foreign Aid grants, and we ask why there is no clean water ?
Frying pan, meet Fire.
I also find it interesting that the ” Samson ” option is always tossed out to somehow intimate that Israel has any options left.Israel is about to enter its trial and tribulation, quaint sayings and beliefs will be empty words when global Empires have had enough, and settle ancient scores.
There will be War, a great War, and it was brought by Ignorant Politicians and nations, right to your doorstep.
Interesting take Alex.
The Samson option is but a pacifier for adults unwilling to admit the gravity of the situation.
When Carter’s legacy comes to fruition and Iran controls the region America can prepare for its trial and tribulation.
As they say, “hope for the best, prepare for the worst”. VDH is right let it play out, the people are speaking out in Egypt, is this not what freedom is about?
Why do I get the feeling that progressives all over the U.S. are rooting for the Brotherhood of Muslim Nazis? Victor, say it ain’t so.
Perhaps it is because I am of the generation of the good doctor’s father that I see things from a different perspective.
While Mubarak may have sustained nominal control of political functions through the institutions cited, neither he nor Sadat acquired political control through those institutions which VDH decries. The working institution from which both gained access IS – repeat IS – the military officer corps.
Yes, it has in the past been infiltrated by the “Brotherhood,” but to no political effect. The Military will hold all other access to political control. It will not allow expansion of “brotherhood” powers ( and has , in fact, through one of its services infiltrated and probably manipulates the “Brotherhood” which has its own discords.
The answer to “our” on-going policy will probably be best determined through our own miltary relationships with that officer corps – the bulk of the manpower being conscript service. This may not happen due to various conceits in the executive departments and assertions of “turf expertise” (the latter being really non-existent).
The transition of political control will move next to the well connected former general now designated as “Vice President.” From there a military coalition will be formed to channel the transition to a slightly more consensual political system that will depend on the military for stability for at least another decade.
Interestingly the take by newly appointed vice president Omar Suleiman on the Muslim Brotherhood as revealed by wikileaks
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/01/wikileaks-cables-shed-light-on-egypts-new-vp-.html
is pretty much the same as the take on the Muslim Brotherhood over at the Long War Journal
http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2011/01/iran_the_muslim_brotherhood_an.php
(The two links above give a lot of history behind the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran as well as the current state of affairs–ie the importance of Suleiman in maintaining a outcome favorable to US interested can’t underestimated. He’s definitely an anti MB/Hez/hamas/Iranian guy)
The problem with the Middle East can be summed up in one word: Islam.
The ultimate goal of any Middle East policy should be to eventually eradicate Islam not to accommodate it which only kicks the problem down the road.
Islam intends to eradicate western civilization and it cannot live indefinitely in the same world.
In the end there will be a world without Islam or a world with only Islam.
The civilized world has a big job ahead; whether it is up to the task remains to be seen.
Dear Dr. Bones,
Suppose, sir, that you have, quite impossibly, misunderstood exactly which mysteries it is for which Party Neocomrade V. D. Hanson-Blimp holds a philosophy-teaching permit, and on that basis called his freelordship in to discuss your aorta rather than your aorists. And suppose further that you receive a quickie-quacky diagnosis that runs to the followin’ tune:
There’s a lot more tripe an’ bologna where that comes from, which we may or may not want to laugh from tomorrow or the day after.
The one silver linin’, sort of, is that Dr. Victor von Blimpenstein is at least honourable an’ neogallant [1] enough not to pretend that there can ever be any serious question of CURIN’ a hopeless loser like you. His freelordship gives you the bad news up front. Or, to scribble a bit more exactly, he has inspired the present keyboard to a pscenario in which Blimpian up-frontness has, ¡lo!, come to pass without me specifically original-intenting that it should. (“How can I know what I think before I see what I have scribbled?”)
***
Over on the Aorist Front, by the way, the freelordly an’ kiddiemagisterial grasp of the Chicagoland vernacular may not be quite everythin’ it oughtabe. And that in two respects:
(A) In the non-spoof (?) diagnosis, presumably all those nasty Natives are ‘vicariously’ exposed to the lifestyles of their Betters in the sense of never havin’ been asked to take tea in person up the slippery slope at Castle Podhóretz. Nor ever chomped a literal an’ non-_halál_ Freedumburger at some O’Donald’s on the whight-wing (Thracian) side of the Bosphorus.
Though not unintelligible, this ‘vicariously’ is pointless, especially when hawked by a Kiddiemaster whose kiddies consider themselves to be drownin’ in a tsunami of _indocumentadas y indocumentados_ no more virtual than virtuous.
(B) ‘Elemental’ is admittedly one of those words I dodge out of sheer ignorance. Too lazy to look it up, I have always been content with a vague feeling that it might do in that learnèd disquisition on Renaissance alchemy that I never seem to get around to actually composing. Von Blimpenstein probably [2] wants it to mean more or less ‘congenital’, which, as you see, made it into the McSkit. Whether that be what ‘elemental’ itself wants to mean, Father Zeus knows best. (Also possibly Nephew Hermes.)
***
Meanwhile, back on the Central Front against E-moms an’ G-hods, Rear-Colonel von Blimpenstein may not really be quite as trailer-trashy as he chooses to appear before the eyes of pajamatarian kiddies. There are GHQ reasons of professional violence, as well as Foxcuckooland requirements of agitprop, for makin’ the Long War against Global Tourism (Pat. Pend.) out to be (not just long in antecedent probability, but) necessarily endless in principle.
There are even what you might label “Blimp-specific reasons”: ¿surely no pious devotee of Mars an’ Bellona, such as his freelordship yoostabe before the Hoovervillainy of Palo Alto rotted his cerebrum, can seriously wish for a world devoid of longwar?
¿_Tis te bios, ti de terpnon ater khalkeiou Areos_?, tra-la-la . . . .
And that will do for now. (There appears to be some trouble up in my Attic.)
¡Happy days! (through affordable healthcare)
–JHM
___
[1] With ‘neogallant’ the exact force of the world’s most factious affix is easy to pin down: Hanson-Blimp, and the other neogals, are inexpugnable monoliths of self-fortitude in the face of *other people’s* pains and dangers.
Neogallantry is a neomerit especially suitable for all those who have taken up arms with the Noble G*dzilla against all that pestiferous swarm of evil Bambis that so plague our _Heimatland G*ttes_ nowadays.
[2] Only ‘probably’, for his freelordship certainly takes no pains to prevent Blimp groupies at Rio Limbaugh/Port Ste. Lucie from assumin’ that those nasty Natives of odious Egypt totter perpetually on the brink of plague an’ famine. Or if not perpetually, then maybe every other seven years.
Take a long walk on a short-plank with your pompous esoteric skull phucking prose. You’re not only profoundly annoying, you’re also a self-slobbering fool with your creepily masturbatory and lengthy gobblegook (which is patently migraine inducing).
Thanks Dalia; someone should have told him that sometime ago.
JHM:
Has anyone ever informed you that language is for communication? Your post made me feel like I was reading T S Eliot’s “Wasteland” with a railroad spike in my forehead.
Good God, you’re a buffoon.
Coherence does not seem to be your greatest attribute. Maybe with instruction you might learn to express yourself clearly.
The reason that letting the situation play itself out in Egypt is that in the Middle East Arab countries it is a matter of which group is more unscrupulous and stronger that determines who runs things.
Egyptian moderates are weak, leaderless, and small in number while Egyptian extremists, both Muslim and secular are powerful, well led, and numerous, and they are also totally unscrupulous in their methods.
I will point out two immediate and real examples of this, the Hizballa terrorist gang which just replaced the government in Lebanon, and the Hamas terrorist movement which is firmly entrenched in the Gaza Strip.
Letting Egypt work it out by itself is the worst possible idea.
UPHEAVAL IN THE MIDDLE EAST: IS IT 1979 IRAN ALL OVER AGAIN?
The signs are troubling:
Obama won the presidency on November 4, 2008 which fell on the 29th anniversary of the hostage crisis in Iran-the first act of war by militant Islam on the US leading to the 9/11 catastrophe 22 years later. This occured under Jimmy “we have overcome our fear of Communism” Carter-the man who deserted the pro-Western, secularizing Shah in favor of the US hating Islamist Ayatollah Khomenie believing he was a democratic reformer. Ominously the Shah fled to (and died in) Egypt a country now in turmoil like the one he left.
On April 6, 2009, shortly after Obama delivered his first fawning speech to Islam* from Ankara, Turkey (his first trip to a Moslem country, which is now an ally of Iran and turning Islamist) a Turkish-born Canadian citizen stole a small single engine plane from a Canadian flight school and flew it across the US border where he was forced to land by two pursuing F-16 jets. Ironically and ominously, and I do not believe this was a mere coincidence, the plane landed in CARTER COUNTY, MISSOURI…………….
Click my name to continue reading article.
Read Isaiah 19 in light of Islamic rule for the past few centuries.
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Isaiah+19
Tribal or two-class, with a small set of kin-based elite Rulers. And the mass. This won’t work in an industrial, massive population scenario.
Surely you must have observed the tribal/clan culture at work in the industrialised USA and Britain to name two?
All those honour killings, the degradation of women etc., and the refusal to integrate into society at large to avoid the honour/shame dichotomy of the clan culture.
These groups are not operating with any political or economic power. They exist as parasites on the real government and economic forces – that ALLOW them to exist as isolate, dependent blocs. They are dependent; they do not contribute to the economic or political well-being of the nation.
All western nations ought to reject this multiculturalism and insist that immigrants integrate with the civic political and legal model of the nation.
Excellent piece by VDH! Our president Obama’s gang are supporters of El Baradie, who is the front man, deep cover ally of Iran, for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Brilliant. Best essay of the day.
The U.S. CIA was able to play both ends against the middle in the Middle East for decades. This kept dictators and regimes in check with them seeming to have powers each feared they could access.
The incompetent, intransigent regime that now occupies Washington, D.C. at present, has nothing to offer any nation, even the United States. Their ‘talent show’ type of management is becoming the tragedy of the 21st century, as we sit back and wring our hands. When some nation or group in a foreign country needs U.S. assistance, they are met with blank expressions, and told “We will take it under advisement”. Then “the advisement” is nothing but days of closed door meetings where nothing ever becomes workable policy. The dolts in Washington can’t even rattle a sword any more.
Where’s the U.S. suckling media? Their crystal ball has always worked so marvelously in recent years. Why haven’t they come out with their favorite Mullah or agnostic they deem as the new leader of a free nation?
We will get ‘news’ from the U.S. suckling media once this event starts to wind down, but it will be nothing but more conjecture about what happened, and what will take place. The media will be reflecting the juvenile, intransigent, and bastardized government now trying to play ‘grown-up’ in Washington, D.C.
“The U.S. CIA was able to play both ends against the middle in the Middle East for decades.”
“The incompetent, intransigent regime that now occupies Washington, D.C. at present, has nothing to offer any nation, even the United States.”
“The dolts in Washington can’t even rattle a sword any more.”
Doesn’t anyone else recall President Bush holding hands with Saudi Prince Abdullah? Can’t believe some of the comments here. Iraq is a mess, we didn’t do so well playing Saddam against Iran did we? How about our various incursions into South America? VDH correctly assessed the situation, “rattle swords”? Are you kidding??? You might as well deed Egypt over to the Muslim Brotherhood!
“He could not have come to power without an underlining culture of tribalism, gender apartheid, religious intolerance, and statism.”
Um, just to be clear, were you talking about Egyptian Mubarak or American Barak?
In 2000, my husband and I went to Egypt with a tour group. I have never seen filth like I saw in Egypt. My first exposure was at the international airport in Cairo. The bathrooms there were unspeakably filthy. I didn’t want to use them, but had to. We visited many towns along the Nile, all littered with garbage. When we were on the tour bus going from Cairo to Giza, my jaw dropped from seeing the trash and filth all around us.
Our tour included a four-night cruise on the Nile. We boarded our boat in Luxor. I would estimate that there were between 150 and 200 of these well-appointed and comfortable boats tied up there waiting for their passengers, while there were probably many more that were already out cruising on the Nile. Every monument we visited charged an entrance fee. When you realize that the tourism industry in Egypt is run by the government, you also realize that the government is making billions and billions of dollars. What happens to this money? Apparently, it doesn’t pay for clean water, trash pick-up, waste treatment, infrastructure, or even janatorial services at Cairo International airport. It almost certainly goes into the foreign bank accounts of Mubarak and his cronies. I naively said to my husband that I was going to write a letter to Mubarak when we got home and ask him why his country was so filthy when the tourism industry was so lucrative. Of course, there is no equivalent of whitehouse.gov in Egypt.
Why, oh why, do we continue to give foreign aid to this country? The politicians there steal all the money legally made in the country and then pocket what we give them as well. We are stooges for allowing this to continue (and in a lot of other countries as well). It’s time to stop foreign aid and get out of the corrupt U.N. We could pay down a good portion of our debt if we didn’t facilitate and continue the corruption and backwardness in other countries around the world with our taxpayer dollars.
We give them (and the Isrealis) foreign aid so that they keep the Camp David treaties — that is, don’t go to war with each other. If they did go to war, it would probably interfere with the flow of oil from the middle east. Every time you cheaply fill up your car at a gas station, you are getting your money’s worth for that foreign aid.
Spun my head around with the analysis on the election in Gaza. What keen and revolutionary thinking on the condition there. “Let ‘em stew in their own juice”, what else can they do, send more suicide bombers, shoot more rockets, they’ve done everything they can, and they will continue to do it until they come to an age of understand – perhaps never.
The title of this article by VDH is “What’s the matter with Egypt?”
Well, it should be: WHat’s the matter with the US?”
Make no mistake about it: what is going on in the Middle East today will directly impact this phony President here and now.
That “one million people demonstration” the opposition is calling for Tuesday in Egypt might as well become a “three million people demonstration in DC” asking for BHO’s resignation.
Food prices have risen across the Middle East – and indeed – across the rest of the world. Since the average household in the USA budgets about 10% or so to food the impact isn’t as great as in countries where the average family might budget 30% or more for food. In Egypt that percentage may be even greater part of the budget.
Lost in all the political BS here and elsewhere is the bottom line on the why of these riots and played like a fiddle by the agitators in the M.E. I’m not saying food prices are the single underlying cause of these riots but they certainly are a major part of the unrest puzzle.
Regardless of the outcome of these riots and whomever takes power is this – as food prices rise it becomes more important than oil – you can’t eat oil. The USA is a net exporter of food – something that will change in the next 15 years or so unless we make changes to where and how we live. We have a narrow window to take the upper hand from the oil rich M.E. Rising food prices are a necessary part of gaining this upper hand.
The question in my mind is are we manipulating food prices behind the scenes to achieve unrest in other countries? Food as a political tool? Maybe.
Remember when the USSR dictator asked how many divisions the pope had?
We all know how THAT hubris worked out for him and his minions!
Well, how many divisions does “Mohammed”, aka the “pope” of Islam, have, eh?
Perhaps the most wondrous fact is that the countries in the Middle East have been able to be ruled by mostly secular tyrants, even though their subjects are completely attached to their weird Islamic beliefs, epitomized by the myriad virgins awaiting after a glorious death fighting for them.
I’d say there are ONLY virgin-loving “divisions” thereabouts, and the Muslim “Iron Curtain” has been completely breeched.
Therefore, I’d look at 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, as the year to compare with 2011.
Sort of a reverse “osmosis”, wherein the rule of Muslim law logically asserts itself.
Demography rules—see Mark Steyn’s “America Alone”.
I find it amusing that so many Americans today, and I literally mean today which is after Obamacare had passed, still decry Marxist this and communist that. And the reason I am amused is because what we are heading toward now with Obama’s presidency is worse than that of pure communist. Back then people only had to worry about food and clothing, perhaps cost of heating. No tax, no mortgage, no mandatory insurance, and every one had roof over their head while health care and education were free. So people were poor but not made destitute by bills and desires and envies, for the elite were not filthy rich and did not flaunt their wealth. A poor person is better off psychologically in the old communist system, not in Obama’s twisted capitalistic America. And both systems, as I see now, are heading to bankruptcy, differ only in timing.
I do agree with the article about Internet. It will be the cause for downfall of all political systems, and ruination of all ways of life, new, old, transitional as it neither produces victuals nor basic necessities needed for human survival.
“What’s the Matter with Egypt?”
Short answer: Islam.
Islam is the foundation of Arab barbarity. And Arab barbarity is institutionalized within Islam. Surely this is the reason that even societies which have no direct relationship to the Arabs other than having succumbed to Islam are also backward and barbaric and corrupted failures. Pakistan, Indonesia, or Turkey come to mind – all non-Arab, but all Islamic, all brutal, corrupt, and hopelessly backward in their own way. It is not the Jews or “Palestine” or America’s support of Muslim tyrants wnich make Muslims hate. It is their Islam which makes them hate, makes them fail, and makes them focus on external victims and scapegoats to explain away the hideousness which emanates solely from Muslims and their culture of depravity and anti-human so-called law (Sharia).
Culture matters. That’s what’s wrong with the Middle East.
A scenario such as this one (widespread political upheaval across the Middle-East) has been brewing for decades now. The irritants outlined by the good Professor are made worse by the gnawing truth that they whisper: That Islam is a false religion. Islam is held, by believers, to be the final revelation of God. And it is at its core, a warrior faith. The tenet of holy war is a central impulse. The only way for a believer to rationalize its apparent failure is to conclude, as did Sayid Qutb, that Muslims have strayed from the path of Allah. And that path is Jihad, ideally under a unified Arab Caliphate. I think that desire is partly driving these revolts.
Furthermore it is likely that the current US administration views such a development favorably. Anything that strengthens our enemies, damages our strategic interests, endangers Israel and hurts us economically will be embraced and abetted by the radicals in the White House. Until we understand this we will not able to accurately interpret their responses.
If this is indeed the widespread re-emergence of a modernized Caliphate intent on holy war with the west, it will have a clarifying effect. It will strip away the ambiguity (promulgated in large part by the leftists) regarding the true nature of the clash of civilizations we are currently in. We will have to go through that fire in order to find the peace and stability that awaits on the other side.
In 1946, Vietnam declared independence from France. Just imagine if the United States had recognized Vietnam at that time. Maybe the tragedy could have been avoided.
A couple weeks into a critical position in Iraq (2003), I realized that the Iraqi people, while cynical, were hungry for… more. I advocated delivering 5″ B&W televisions to the whole of the populace and then broadcasting western television shows, documentaries, and (yes) propaganda. My suggestions weren’t headed, but in my province I fostered 2 television stations, 2 radio stations and several newspapers with guidance that free speech was paramount. Additionally, I went on the television stations at least twice a week to speak to the people of the province and receive their questions. Respect, and the information of what they COULD have, brought an energized populace into TRYING to improve their lot and expanding expanding the question of WHY they can’t have freedoms and prosperity.
I believe this example can be used to foster progress throughout the Middle East – certainly, we’ve seen this in the use of blogs, tweets, facebooking, texts, and websites by significant movements in Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, and now Egypt. Unfortunately, I’ve seen the Islamists using these methods to their ends, and our efforts are picayune.
A ship of state does NOT turn on a dime. We give them money, we should have the abiity to fully access their communication network.
If we were only allowed to to hear and see what they are permitted..we would hate America too