CAIRO — With millions of Egyptians in the streets for a third straight day demanding his resignation, a defiant President Mohammed Morsi took to Egypt’s airwaves early Wednesday morning and vowed to fight to remain in office, even if “the price is my blood.”
In a 40-minute call to arms to his supporters, Morsi angrily declared his right to serve out his term as the first democratically elected president in EgyptÂ’s long history.
“I am the president of Egypt,” he shouted at one point. “There is no substitute for legitimacy, no alternative.”
| Strange use of the word 'legitimacy' there... |
The speech seemed to augur the likelihood of violence when a 48-hour deadline issued by the military calling for Morsi and his opponents to find a solution to their impasse expires at 4:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. EDT).
“The price can be my life,” he said.
There are plenty who will collect that, and I think he knows it, so this is just rhetoric. There's a comfortable dacha villa waiting for him in Riyadh... |
The speech was likely to be read as a call to arms by thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members whoÂ’ve been forming their own security force, armed with sticks, helmets and Molotov cocktails, even as police and the countryÂ’s military seemed to be withdrawing their support from Morsi.
Keeping their distance from anti-Morsi protests that have brought millions into the streets, Brotherhood forces have been preparing for days, chanting, lining up in formation, and hoisting sticks, chair legs and two-by-fours in mock combat drills.
| If the Army comes down against the Brøderbünd chair legs aren't going to help much... |
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who leads the largest opposition group, the National Salvation Front, was reported to be negotiating with the Morsi government. But whatever, if anything, emerges from that effort is unlikely to satisfy everyone, portending, under the best of circumstances, even more instability.
| If ElBaradei becomes the next leader Egypt is even more screwed then it is now... |
Elsewhere in Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood seemed determined to secure MorsiÂ’s legitimate place as EgyptÂ’s leader with its illegitimate security force.
“Strength, determination, faith, Morsi’s men are everywhere!” they screamed while stomping their feet and doing air punches in the air. Overweight men in beards then dropped down and began doing pushups.
The tension was high as they waved their sticks in the air and stomped their feet in front of the presidential palace. Their numbers had clearly grown from Friday, when theyÂ’d formed up in squad-size units of 15 to 20; on Tuesday, they were organized in platoons, 50 or 60 men to a unit.
| It's downright .. paramilitary. They just need to borrow the yellow flags and the palm-down salutes from Hezbollah... |
One group donned blue construction helmets and orange life vests to serve as protection from rubber bullets.
| Life vests .. they'll save your life... |
Another wore red and silver motorcycle helmets; its members carried green pipes. They vowed to battle to the death.
| So they're sorta like a deviant, Islamicist "Hell's Angels"... |
Some had written “martyr” on their knuckles orange vests. Others carried signs that read: “Martyr Project.”
“I am prepared to be martyred,” one man told another.
If they succeed in defending MorsiÂ’s hold on the presidency, itÂ’s unclear what Morsi would control.
“That the Brotherhood is ostensibly forming a militia reinforces the fact that Morsi has no control over the police and is increasingly the titular head of a failed state,” said Eric Trager, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. |