#1
Mr. Wife finds all this admiration for the Egyptian military astounding, as it wasn't anything like that when he spent time there in the mid-1980s.
"Which organization or politician was admired then, if not the military?" I asked him.
"No one and nothing," he replied. "The people I talked to -- factory workers, management, the cab driver I hired by the month -- considered them all corrupt."
He thinks the military is deliberately being built up to make it easy for everyone to accept the next ruler they choose from among themselves, just as they have each time since King Farouk was kicked out in 1952.
#2
I have been reading as much as I can find on this topic. Nothing firsthand but I read all 'sides'. My two cents: there are very few social and economic paths to advancement available to Egyptians, and the military is the one that is open to all. There are tiers, certainly, but it can lead to economic and social betterment for those willing to work for it. As always, any path is better than no path. /end two cents
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/04/2011 11:55 Comments ||
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#3
A good point, Whiskey Mike. Since Mr. Wife was dealing with people who had well-paid jobs, that possibly wasn't a concern to them.
#4
In the mid 80s people still remembered that the Egyptian Army did not win the Yom Kippur war (they advanced into the Sinai catching Israel asleep, then were beaten like a rug).
By 2011, mythology has taken over. I think most Egyptians think they won the Yom Kippur war (after all they got Sinai back) and further they were treated to some embellishment of how their guys did in the 1991 liberation of Kuwait.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/04/2011 12:59 Comments ||
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#6
Can the military save Egypt from ElBaradei and the Muslim Brotherhood?
Egypt has been a Mamluk society, along with Pakistan and Iraq and others for over the last thousand years.
The old saying that it doesn't matter who you vote for, you will always end up with a politician applies doubly in these countries except it is the military.
To find out why, look at why they were appointed in the first place. Islamic society is ungovernable.
#7
NETTERS/BLOGGERS = large number believe that once EGYPT finally falls, espec unto the Muslim Brotherhood = Islamist Groups, that SAUDI ARABIA + REST OF MUSLIM ME will be next.
* JPOST > IFF MUSLIM BROTEHRHOOD TAKES OVER [Egypt], IDF WILL FACE A FORMIDABLE ENEMY, as Egypt has one of the STRONGEST, LARGEST, PROFESSIONAL, + MODERN ARMIES IN THE ME REGION, one that is mostly US-EQUIPPED + TRAINED.
ARTIC =
> ISRAEL'S IDF will have to implement MAJOR STRUCTURAL, FORCE CHANGES NOT SEEN SINCE THE END OF THE 1973 YOM KIPPUR WAR.
> While Israel has the SINAI DESERT AS A SIGNIFICANT BUFFER ZONE, + LEBANON in its north, IT LACKS SAME AGZ SIMILARLY "JASMINE"-AFFECTED JORDAN wid its large Paleo population + US-NATO armed Military.
WORST-CASE, POST-MUBARAK REGIONAL WAR SCENARIO = ISRAEL ANALYST believes the MOST DANGEROUS THREAT TO ISRAEL WILL LIKELY BE ON THE JORDANIAN FRONT, NOTSOMUCH EGYPT FOR A TIME, DUE TO LACK OF GEOGRAPHIC BUFFER ZONE.
Lest we fergit, a MB takeover also means a takeover of EGYPT'S CIVILIAN NUCPROGS - ditto foe the rest of the ME.
First Iceland. Then Greece. Now Ireland, which headed for bankruptcy with its own mysterious logic. In 2000, suddenly among the richest people in Europe, the Irish decided to buy their countryfrom one another. After which their banks and government really screwed them. So wheres the rage?
#1
Very lengthy article. The youth are leaving. Just a few short years ago things were booming in Ireland.
Where in the world would you go in today's economy?.
This cuts deep.
This a leaked version of what he will say in a few hours. If he means what he says, Londistan will be no more.
British Muslims must subscribe to mainstream values of freedom and equality, David Cameron will say as he declares that the doctrine of multiculturalism has failed and will be abandoned.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/04/2011 19:56 Comments ||
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#2
DEFENCE.PK FORUMS > [UK] MI6:SUCIDE BOMBER WAVE THREATENS UK, espec as per UK-born, residing Radicalists whom also received their Terr training domestically.
Besides the national threat to the UK from HOME-BRED TERRORISTS, MI6 also finds itself legally, hence bureaucratically, hamstrung by myriad LITIGATION CASES restricting the type of responses it can initiate in the name of anti-Terror Security.
* ION WORLD NEWS > THIS IS WHAT KEEPS US MILITARY STRATEGISTS SCARED [Not Nuclear or Radioactive "Dirty Bombs", but ASYMMETRIC CBW = Chemwar, BioWar Devices NOT timely claimed by any Govt-State or high-profile MilTerr Group].
In fairness, Mead does address that point further on:
Americans should never forget that our own system rests on two acts of revolution . . . The United States has revolution in its DNA and Americas deepest values tell us that revolutions like those in France, Russia, Iran and Egypt are the last defense of humanity against the establishment or the perpetuation of tyranny.
All of this is true; none of this helps American governments figure out what to do when revolutionary upheaval breaks out in a key foreign ally. It is almost never the right choice to help the challenged government cling to power by using American forces and resources to crush the uprising.
Yet distancing ourselves from a weakening ally is not always cost free.
#7
Color me skeptical. I'm going with Dark Ages. There are too many rats gnawing at the underside of the ship. I would like if there was a dawning of freedom for the Mideast. Our Constitution is there for anyone who might like to adopt it. So far not many takers.
#8
They have a choice - break the cycle and try to set up a free nation, or simply hand the whip to a new master, and help him put on the jackboots they're going to end up licking.
Iran chose the latter years ago and is suffering even now. Iraq has tried to do the former and appears to be recovering well enough.
It all depends on if Egypt has enough sane people to hold of the enslavers - the Islamists like the MB and their collectivist supporters (part of our state department, unfortunately).
#9
"Spengler" on unrest in Egypt: Egypt is wallowing in backwardness, not because the Mubarak regime has suppressed the creative energies of the people, but because the people themselves cling to the most oppressive practices of traditional society [i.e. female genital mutilation]. And countries can only languish in backwardness so long before some event makes their position untenable... It wasn't the financial crisis that undermined dysfunctional Arab states, but Asian prosperity. The Arab poor have been priced out of world markets. There is no solution to Egypt's problems within the horizon of popular expectations. Whether the regime survives or a new one replaces it, the outcome will be a disaster of, well, biblical proportions.
#11
As the second largest recipient of US aid, primarily military, the Egyptians should think long and hard over the choices they face. There are calls to end all foreign aid in lieu of our own economic problems and decline in prosperity. And if they choose anything less than adopting our constitution, it will be a global dark age with the mad mullahs drunk on the blood of the infidels and unbelievers.
#3
Anjem's a noisy boy. If he pulled this shit in the street and the British cops pulling his security disappeared, he'd drop a pantload you could smell in Japan.
The posterboy of Brave Jihadi Pussies...
#1
I think the actual NYT equation is something like:
Catholic = Islamist = Evangelical = Observant Jew = pretty much everyone west of Bergen, NJ and east of Sacramento except the ones that work at local NPR stations.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/04/2011 13:27 Comments ||
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#2
NYT = Cheerleaders for thugs, murderers, terrorists, and all things anti-American.
#1
The WaPo also gave George Soros space this week. Soros blamed Israel for the Egyptian problem.
The WaPo, NYTimes, etc. whitewash of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) may not be working very well. Some of my leftist kinfolk (who would usually be easily swayed by the WaPo, etc.) are worried about the MB. They may remember Iran.
What is also amusing is that I'll bet Obama and the Rodham have been getting calls from the Saudis, Kuwaitis, and Jordanians. telling him not to trust the MB.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/04/2011 13:48 Comments ||
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#2
In a small miracle, the NYTimes let Ayaan Hirsi Ali have some op ed space for a piece called,
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
"Sharia will come to America . . . Islam is coming to your backyard."
