The statements of John Kerry about how the Muslim Brotherhood stole the January revolution from the Tahrir kids echoed strongly back in Cairo. It is most powerful statement condemning and slamming the Muslim Brotherhood since the 25 January 2011 not even since 3 July 2013.
Now I have two remarks about that statement.
Well the first remark is that I am afraid that the Brotherhood was not the only thief in town that stole the revolution from those kids in Tahrir. In fact all the grown ups stole it along with the Muslim Brotherhood whether the army or the deep state or the pseudo political parties or media or Islamists or even global and regional powers. They are even fighting over the booty now.
Those kids in Tahrir square have spent the past three years between the morgue and funerals fighting the worst despair where as their revolution has been stolen over and over in front of their own eyes.
Those kids do not have anything to do except see their friends in coffins not to mention being demonized in the eyes of the public at the same time they are trying to fight fairly in a dirty war without any foreign aid or deep state aid. Those kids are the best personification of Don Quixote.
They tried to enter the realm of dirty politics but failed thanks to the older generation that insists to play according to the Mubarak’s regime game rules. The revolution is simply stolen because the Mubarak’s regime has not fallen yet for real. The revolution is stolen because the grown ups whether MB or Military or other pseudo political powers got their own agendas different from the real agenda of 25 January revolution : Freedom , Social justice equality and Democracy as a base for a strong nation.
Now the second remark : Some say that this statement or this change in the American attitudetowards Egypt is because we are returning back to the Eastern block !! Yeah this is what is being marketed in the Egyptian media now.
“We made the United States kneel down” a famous tweep in Egyptian twitterville said today in pride without knowing or understanding that the Russian FM made it clear over dozen times whether during his visit in Cairo or even in his interviews in Moscow that Russia was not replacing anyone in Egypt aka the States.
They are also ignoring the interview of the head of GIS major Genera Tohamy with WP where he made it clear that the GIS/CIA were the best friends even now. In nutshell the world is not the world in 1956 as some people hope and think especially with that wave sweeping the country on how El Sisi is the incarnation of Nasser.
John Kerry is already from the camp in the Obama that supports dialogue with the new rulers of Cairo and he expressed many times before unlike the rest of the rest of the Obama administration as well Congress and Senates that got a conservative view about Cairo now.
I believe that Obama administration does not have any problem to deal with the military on the contrary it is the United States’ favorite type of rulers but there are two obstacles facing them : The official bureaucratic thing of that foreign assistance Coup act thing and the image of the Obama administration in the American and international of aiding that “military backed government” as it is being called in international wire services now while that government is suppressing freedoms after praising the 25 January revolution and what it brought from freedoms …etc. You can not hide human rights crimes easily nowadays like in Chile from 40 years ago.
Another factor also I believe is playing role here is lobby and I am not speaking about PR lobbying company in D.C hired by the Egyptian government but you got the infamous AIPAC as well Israeli government support the interim government too because they believe that the security campaign in Sinai against militants is in the best interest of Israel. All this is not a big secret on the contrary.
It is not a secret either that some Israeli analysts and politicians believed that Morsi and the MB were better choice because they had control of Hamas but Hamas and MB do not have REAL Control on the Salafist Jihadist groups. “Of course the Salafist Jihadists groups in Sinai turned their cannons to Cairo instead Eilat lately”
Anyhow when I look to the whole Egyptian American relations to be honest , all what I find honestly three parties trying to get D.C in their side in some stupid competition.
Of course the army relations with the United States are well known as well old and complicated then you got the Islamists aka the MB and the few non-Islamist parties trying to gain the support of the States in order to reach to the ruling chair.
The fight is about which party got more cards to play with the States, so far the army control the game historically and strategically more than the MB or those pathetic parties.
Anyhow as someone once told me , we are still in the beginning in the film. May be the kids of Tahrir will restore their revolution hopefully alone in the end.
By the way we did not Facetime anything as Facetime is not working in Egypt and again the revolution was much more than social media one. We are also not just kids fooling around, God knows how much we feel old nowadays.
I agree with everything said, but I'm not really sure I'd use the term 'stolen' The MB and military have gained power because they actually had a plan and are following it. The revolutionary youth don't seem to be able to do anything more than protest whatever the current government is. Demanding the fall of the regime is all very well, but if you don't have anything to replace it you are never going to get what you want.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the Salafists were able to create a political party in a few weeks after the fall of Mubarak and compete very successfully in the 2011 elections. There was no revolutionary equivelent of an-Nur, the only secular parties that mattered were the old ones like Wafd and at-Tagammu going through the motions just like they did in 'elections' under Mubarak. And for that nobody can take the blame but the revolutionaries themselves. It is all very well to demand democracy, social justice and all that, but until you are willing to actually step up and get into governmental positions you are irrevelevent.
Thanks again for telling it like it is. The Deep State (the war machine, the corporations, the banks) make democratic politics impossible worldwide. We need a world-wide uprising for democracy and social justice. Political alternatives will coalesce around that struggle @David Walker. We are no freer in the "democratic" West; just more apathetic, co opted and delusional.
ReplyDeleteSo in the delusional west, thousands are killed and tortured on regular basis. Women are arrested tortured and raped without charges for being in a demonstration or sit in. Prisoners are killed in cold blood with no hint of an investigation. Critical talk show host are taken off the air. The whole media apparatus in the delusional west is instructed to prepare the masses for the next dictator. People have no right in the west for humane health care or housing. Oh boy you are right about being delusional.
DeleteIf you wait for a world-wide uprising that will magically solve all your problems you will wait forever. Real political change is made more gradually and involves hard choices and accepting unpleasant realities. It requires day-to-day work in the trenches, not coming out for a big 'uprising' that will fix everything in 18 days and then let you go back to doing shisha in the lounge. The January uprising was a good start but it was let out of once Mubarak stepped down. Jun 30 to steal a line from Tallyrand, it was worse that a crime, it was a mistake.
DeleteThings are not changing gradually for the better @David, they are changing rapidly for the worse. Accepting "unpleasant realities" and "day-to-day work in the trenches" is to be on the losing side. You talk as if "real political change" for the better, however slow, is underway. Not so. Real political change that limits and rolls back social justice and democracy is underway. And it is underway because the acceptance of "pragmatic" and "realistic" politics makes room for it. Revolutionaries are not a potential government. They are an actual flesh and blood electorate. Until you have stood in the way of tear gas and bullets with your "flesh and blood" you would do better, with respect, to comment less on the failings of those who have. @Khaled your argument has some force. Of course we are freer in the West. You are right. We are also the power behind the Deep State in Egypt (for example) that foists "the next dictator" on its citizens. I want to be free from being part of that. That freedom is not available to me.
DeleteYes, I can see that things are changing for the worse. That is despite overthrowing two governments in as many years. You are going to have to be in it for a longer term fight than 18 days or 4 if you are going to get what you want. Otherwise you will be making a mess and letting others put together the pieces as they see fit.
DeleteWhat is the word? maybe patronizing yourself , if you think the west has that power or even ability to influence the political process. If it had that power El Baradei will be ruling Egypt and Zeinobia will be his prime minister by now.
Delete@David I meant getting worse everywhere in the world. The globalisation of decline, to coin a phrase. The forces promoting decline are globalised. Ergo resistance should globalise. The Egyptian struggle is our front line. @Khaled of course Western influence is not so precise as to put Bradei in power. The Deep State in the West (meaning the world) cares nothing for real democracy anyway. It pays the wages of your Army. It creates your military State. Do you think an economic basket-case like Egypt can afford all these playthings of Death, the tanks, the aircraft, the personnel? They are the payment of the Pentagon for doing what you are told. Once these bloated militaries are in place in any country they will oppress their own people to remain in power. The Deep State in the world (U.S. China,Russia, take your pick) cares NOTHING for the people. It wants to control you for its own interests. The revolutionaries are not acting in the interests of world Power. The West is 100% hypocritical on this. They are your true patriots. The Army have only their interests at heart. They will sell you out to anyone with the cash.
DeleteThings are not getting worse, they are getting better at a rate never before seen, at least in developing countries. Europe and Japan are in the doldrums. I have no doubt that state agencies and military are quite capable of self-interest, but that does nothing to change the fact that waiting for a global coordinated revolution that is not going to happen is the same as doing nothing.
DeleteThings are getting better @David? The Arctic is melting. We are headed for six degrees of temperature rise. The seas are dying. We are entering into a man made mass extinction event. Population is headed for twelve billion. Earnings have been falling for thirty years in the developed West, particularly in America. Nearly half of working Americans have not been to see a doctor when they needed to in the last year because they can't afford to. Wallmart advises its workers to go on foodstamps. 300 people in the world own more wealth than the poorest half of the planet. The movement of wealth in the rich part of the world from poor to the extremely wealthy has never been greater. Disparity of wealth has never been greater since Roman times. The great educational institutions have been taken over by corporate interests who hate real learning. America's youth is up to its neck in unrepayable student debt. Jobs move to China because corporate interests are globalised and unpatriotic. America has now a higher infant mortality rate than Cuba. America imprisons a higher percantage of its population (mainly black) than China. On almost every index of social and political wellbeing America falls way down the list. The debt levels of the developed world are absolutely unsustainable. The oil is running out. Folks are getting fatter and "if ignorance be bliss" happier, I'll grant you that. Capitalism is in the phase that Soviet Socialism was in in the Brezhnev years.
ReplyDeleteYou will notice I said "in the developing world". China, India, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam and a whole host of countries are becoming richer at a rate never before seen in human history. Things are stagnating a bit in the developed nations, but they are already the richest people in the history of the world. While most of the things you mention are at least partly true and are real problems, the chances they will lead to revolution is in my judgment low. The chances that would lead to revolution in other countries is even lower. If you are waiting for the US government to be magicially replaced by one that will magically fix all Egypt's problems you will be waiting a very long, long time.
DeleteI have been to the countries you mention over a 50 year period. India was the equal of Britain in the seventeenth century before we began the process of imperial plunder that diminished it to third world status by 1947. I fail to understand what "rich" means. I feel poor in a world on the edge of ecosystem collapse and mass extinctions. Indian and Chinese cities are hardly habitable because of the levels of pollution. The world's cities are in the process of becoming vast (er) dystopian slums holding the majority of the world's population. This trend is already being planned for in terms of subversion control. Yes, there is cash for cars, and junk goods, medical welfare is better, infant mortality is down, but at what a price, and in any case from an exploitative colonial bass mark, or a primitive one. The world is ragged at the seams. We don't need monetary riches. We need sustainable societies with social justice and a healthy environment to bring true joy in life. To measure human development in terms of money wealth is entirely sophistical. As to America and its allies I am waiting for them (us) to magically fix their own problems and keep out of other people's. Riches are the refuge of the hopeless and the intellectually defeated. I used the word "uprising" not "revolution". No one wants the latter with its suggestion of a fixed position to revolve into. The early signs of an uprising for democracy and social justice are apparent. The pro democracy people should never have left the streets until real bottom up power evolves. @David I think you are a political Luddite (said with a smile). Listen, if I say to you that before the end of the century we will have a manned bass on Mars, you would not (I guess) rule that out as a foolish dream. It would require ongoing development, overcoming great unforeseen difficulty, it would be a massive challenge, but yes (I think you would say) we can do it. Real political transformation would be equally complex, challenging, and experimental. But political thinkers tend to a Luddite attitude..."radical change will come to no good, the established methods are best, we have always ploughed with a wooden plough, it is human nature to plough with an ox" (if you accept the analogy.) I am not saying it will be easy, but neither is modern medicine or a jetliner easily achieved. Like you I think "it is not going to happen" (people seizing their hope) but I don't have that negative attitude to thinking we may eradicate malaria.
DeleteI don't disagree that you point out real problems, though I don't think the whole picture is as dire as you suggest. However there is a line that sums up what I am trying to say " The pro democracy people should never have left the streets until real bottom up power evolves."
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was saying in a nutshell. Changes can happen, but expecting them to happen in a week because of a revolution or uprising or whatever is not practical. There was never a revolution done in a week that didn't have roots laid long before.
@David Just so. We agree on this, in spite of the tendency of online debate to polarise opinion. The Egyptian uprising was founded in trades union action and a lot of painstaking groundwork by leftist and secular activists who have not gone away, which is a cause for optimism. I have a problem with the ousting of Morsy. He was elected. It is difficult not to conclude he should have been removed by the ballot box. Although I believe these democratic systems (like we those have in the West) are seriously flawed there is a moral argument to vote for the lesser evil. But an Algerian friend predicted during all the euphoria in Egypt after the un-finished revolution that the outcome would be a coup like in his country. The behaviour of the MB was quite predictable too. I don't think I understand the fears of secular modernists on the ground in Egyot but it seems to me they have been slow to voice solidarity with the Islamists on the street in terms of human rights, perhaps. Zeinobia has done just this to her great credit. @Zeinobia, if you ever fully read the tiresome rantings of old leftists in the North, and see this, could you do an analysis around the issue I have raised here? You did post an excellent article pointing out that much of the apparent disregard for the rights of Morsy supporters laid at the door of the democracy activists was a misunderstanding by the West who have confused the old Nationalists (Nasserites) with pro democracy people. More on this please!
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