March Madness, Cairo Edition

So this isn’t at all ominous:

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Sunday threatened to initiate stern steps to “protect” the nation in the wake of the recent street battles between his political opponents and members of the governing Muslim Brotherhood in several towns and cities.

Morsi’s threat came two days after Opposition activists clashed with his supporters as well as riot police outside the Muslim Brotherhood’s office in Cairo. At least 200 people were reportedly injured in Friday’s violence in the Egyptian capita. Several other Egyptian cities and towns, including Alexandria, witnessed similar clashes. “I am President of all Egyptians and I will not allow anyone to tamper with the nation. If I am obliged to do what is necessary to protect this nation, I will do, and I fear I am about to do that,” Morsi said in a statement posted on Twitter on Sunday.

Threatening strong action against those found guilty of inciting Friday’s violence, Morsi said: “Some people are using the media to incite violence, and whoever is found involved will not escape punishment. Whoever participates in incitement is a participant in crime.”

I’m afraid Egypt is going to end up being Somalia-on-the-Med. Of course, Somalia is a narrow strip of coast with about ten million inhabitants in a part of the world, pretty much next to nowhere. Egypt is eighty or so million packed along the Nile, armed with F-16s and Abrams tanks.

It won’t be pretty.