For John, BLUF: Religious prejudice. Reminds on of the Ursuline Convent Fire in Boston. Nothing to see here; just move along.
Sister Manal, principal of a Franciscan school in suburban Cairo, told a reporter for the British Tabloid, The Daily Mail, in this 19 August 2013 story:
We are nuns. We rely on God and the angels to protect us. At the end, they paraded us like prisoners of war and hurled abuse at us as they led us from one alley to another without telling us where they were taking us.The situation in Egypt is confusing and confounding. For sure it is not politics American style. That said, some might argue it is politics Chicago style, but with the Army, rather than the police.
One of the lessons I would draw from the removal of President Morsi from office is that our broad-brush term, coup, is not suitable for intelligent discourse. A coup it Egypt is not a coup in Turkey, is not a coup in Chile or Argentina, is not a coup is France or North Korea. For those of us old enough to remember, France had a coup in the 1958, which produced The Fifth Republic. We seemed to live with that—de Gaulle came to power. There were the riots of '68 and in April 1969 Charles de Gaulle resigned. Incidentally, during the riots of 1968 President de Gaulle made sure he had the backing of the Army. Everything worked out swell.
Pinochet in Chile, overthrowing Allende did not go down well with many people here in the US.
On the other hand, Juan Paron came to power in Argentina on the heels of a series of coups in the 1930s and we all love Evita.
If there was a coup in North Korea today, or in Iran, and a more friendly government came to power, would we not reach out and embrace the new Government?
Why do we care? Because if the whole Near and Middle East blow up and we get a global conflict the young men and women of Lowell will be marching off to war—and our taxes will be going up. On the other hand, to be honest, the recession will end, but at what a price.
Hat tip to Ann Althouse.
Regards — Cliff
Even if Anarchy = Full Employment, I'll pass.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, Egypt's military has been a stabilizing force in the region over the last 30 years, and has done a decent job of protecting minority groups within the nation's borders (Copts, Bedouins), as well as foreign visitors, tourists and investors.
Without endorsing the solution, I would defer to the judgment of the commanders on the ground in determining which is the greater threat to their nation - a new dictatorship more oppressive than the last that does not protect minority rights, or a few weeks of violent conflict with those same people?
We really need to stop acting in the world as Imperial America. Egypt is a sovereign nation, entitled to settle their internal matters in whatever way they deem appropriate. When their actions begin to threaten our sovereignty, then we have a basis to act. Moral outrage does not equate to a threat that we must respond to. We can't and shouldn't expect to be the world's moral cop, especially given our less than sterling past in that regard.
ReplyDeleteI seriously doubt that it would be or is the will of the people that we involve ourselves in the matters of other countries. Just one more example of those who believe that they are somehow better than the masses making unilateral decisions. How many of our best youth have been sacrificed as a result of the misguided directions of the ruling class? For what?? We didn't WIN in Vietnam and we LOST hundreds of thousands. Same with Iraq. Same with Afghanistan. Has our involvement in either theater changed anything there? The answer is a resounding "NO." In fact, if anything, the Mid-East is in greater turmoil than ever before.
It's all about money and power. Our money to fuel someone's power.