President Obama Supporting Terrorists not the People

The Obama Administration through the State Department has confirmed to the press that funding for the Egyptian government will be cut by hundreds of millions of dollars over the current situation pertaining to the military takeover of the government and removing President Morsi. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki provided additional information including that delivery of certain large scale military systems would be postponed along with the suspension of funding until “credible progress” was made towards the set up of free and fair elections restoring Egyptian democracy. Currently the United States provides $1.5 billion in annual aid to Egypt which can be utilized to purchase weapons systems or for training troops. The aid was part of the Camp David Accords which were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978. The military aid to Egypt was supposed to keep Egypt closely aligned with the United States and thus prevent the Egyptians or Israelis from launching an attack on the other. By withholding the aid moneys President Obama is making the situation on the border between Israel and Egypt less stable. Add to that, President Obama is acting in a manner which aligns him with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt calling for the reinstating of deposed President Morsi and the reacceptance of the Muslim Brotherhood control.

 

President Obama has been playing a dangerous game where he has not quite completely and totally rejected the military installed government which was put in place in response to the demonstrations and signed petitions all calling for the removal of President Morsi and carrying the signatures or backing of tens of millions of Egyptians who also protested in the streets. President Obama has decried the violence which has rocked Egypt from border to border with barely a city, town or village escaping the violence. It has appeared that President Obama blames the military as the root from which the violence spreads when in fact much of the violence has been instigated by the Muslim Brotherhood who have taken it upon themselves to take vengeance on those they feel were instrumental in removing President Morsi and supplanting the Muslim Brotherhood control. Many in the Muslim Brotherhood as well as from the Salafists Muslims are convinced that much of the problems resulted from Christians, Shiite, and other non-Sunni Muslims, thus have set out to victimize these minorities with the Coptic Christians facing the worst of the assaults. Despite many of the films of the anti-Coptic violence showing the attackers waving the Muslim Brotherhood banner along with the al-Qaeda black banner, President Obama continues to place the blame for the violence in the streets on the military.

 

This has led to many confused and troubled Egyptians who cannot understand the United States position. They have asked members of the press when they are interviewed to explain how it is the President of the United States can continue to act to support the oppressive rule by the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming to stand for liberty and equality before the law. A good number of these Egyptians appear to have read some of the United States founding documents and gained a solid grasp of the principles underpinning personal freedom and the personal responsibility such freedom requires for a nation to continue. Sometimes you find truth and justice defined precisely in places one would never have thought to seek it. It is these young Arabs and other youths around the world who are awakening to the principles of freedom, liberty, personal responsibility and self-governance. Will these young people win the day and install a system of rule which applies the best and most just governance ever founded by mankind? Unfortunately, the answer is no and a lot of that has to do with the current leaders who still believe that if government is given sufficient funds, there is never sufficient funds, given ample shares of power, even all the power would prove inadequate, and given every arm of enforcement, education, media, and anything else their imaginations believe is necessary, they would still at the end of the day fail and blame it on those who dared to be different, those who love freedom and liberty. Perhaps the real reason that President Obama is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood at every turn is because he craves their systematic application of power resulting in near total control, or perhaps it is simply that President Obama has no clue what he is doing.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Gaza and Sinai Vexing Egyptian Military

Since the overthrow of Mubarak as the President of Egypt there have been increasing difficulties with extreme lawlessness in both the Sinai and the border with Gaza. When President Morsi, who had the backing of the Muslim Brotherhood, made up the government in Egypt these problems grew in scope and severity. Reports told of al-Qaeda camps being established leading to radicalization of the Bedouins who found the offers to assist the weapons smugglers paid far better than their previous occupation of herding. The Egyptian government under Morsi began to try and combat the growing menace in the Sinai and even found it necessary to try and restrict the flow of arms into Gaza to Hamas and other terrorist groups there. After an attack on the Rafah border crossings where a band of terrorists murdered fifteen Egyptian border agents in the process of stealing some armored vehicles with which to cross into and attack Israel the Egyptians ramped up their presence for the first time and have done so as deemed necessary since. Their assault into Israel was met and repelled destroying at least one of the stolen armored vehicles. With the military inserted government which replaced the Morsi government after the coup that shall not be named a coup took over they increased the efforts to reinstate the rule of law in the Sinai and concurrently restrict the smuggling tunnels through which arms and other goods enter Gaza and fund Hamas. Despite the risks which any governance of Egypt would face working with Israel, both the Morsi and the Military backed governments have consulted and kept all agreements with Israel though not actually warming to any great extent. One guess is that the Egyptian governments, no matter who it is aligned with, have more than enough problems that since keeping relations with Israel at least non-confrontational if not warm and mushy were an easy investment that paid dividends when they entered into operations in the Sinai.

 

It is interesting that the Egyptians have had almost the same threats, difficulties and challenges which have plagued the Israelis over the years and they seem to have a similar attitude towards how to address these problems. The Egyptian government escalated their response soon after the military took over governing Egypt. With Israeli understanding and blessings the Egyptians sent armor supported forces in numbers into the Sinai supported by helicopter gunships. These offensives have met with somewhat limited success as the terrorists and smugglers are extremely adept at melting into the natural environment. The most recent escalation was somewhat shocking when the Egyptians stationed a pair of heavy tanks at the Rafah crossing as a response to the recent bombings pulled off by terrorist factions within Gaza. This escalation is a whole new strategy as I do not remember the Israelis stationing tanks within the Philadelphia Corridor when they controlled the Gaza border with Egypt. The Egyptians recently widened the cleared area on the Gaza border which resulted in their demolishing some houses which were revealed to have been used as tunnel entrances. This is the same reaction for which the Israelis were pilloried in the international press and heralded as brutes taking horrific and unnecessary destructive measures against the poor and unfortunate Palestinian civilians. Somehow, the recent actions though identical except having been committed by the Egyptians have passed by silently without even a murmur from the world media or the various NGOs which cursed similar actions by the Israelis. I guess it matters whose troops are exercising precautions taking the needful steps in order to make the environment safer for their troops operating along that border.

 

It will be interesting to watch as the Egyptians continue to meet the ever escalating challenges in the Sinai and along the Gaza border, though finding reports on such can be a bit difficult. It is expected that the Egyptians will resort to similar methods, precautions, demolitions, walls, blockades, vibrations sensors for tunnel detection, and all of the other overt and imposing appearing necessities for which the world’s media, governments, spokespersons, NGOs and United Nations Agencies challenged the necessity for when implemented by the Israelis. It can be expected that whenever there are comments about the similarities between the Egyptian methods and activities with those of the Israelis will be to note how the Egyptians are using good judgment, incremental escalations and only doing those actions which proved absolutely needed and not going to irrational extremes as the Israelis had done. An objective and rational observer would assess the actions of the Egyptians, when compared to the historic methods used by the Israelis, and report that they matched very closely and that the major exceptions would be the Egyptians went further than the Israelis by giving no or less warnings before demolitions, used heavy armor such as tanks, and the violence level implemented generally by the Egyptians was heightened with less regard for those who posed any level of perceived threat. But don’t expect any real coverage of the Egyptian actions nor will there be any apologies coming to the Israelis over their being berated and demeaned for their actions in the past. Where the actions and means employed may be similar, the reactions from the world will be completely different. If pushed for a reason the world is reacting differently to the Egyptian use of force versus the Israeli use of force, the answer will likely be a shrug and their asking what you are talking about, the Israelis use of force was completely different and what the Egyptians are doing is perfectly understandable. Where the Israelis use of force was measured and performed under strict rules and limitations and the Egyptians are allowing a more liberal implementation of force to a lesser threshold of provocation and are placing fewer restrictions on their forces which will be understood with their loss of troops being higher than the Israelis had suffered. I do not really care how the world reacts and simply wish the Egyptians success and hope they are able to end the lawless culture in the Sinai and close the smuggling into and out of Gaza, especially Gaza as the revolving door which potentially could result from failure would pose a huge threat for Israel as well as Egypt.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Egypt Erupts Again, It Must Have Been Friday

Reports out of Egypt recounted that late Friday violence by ousted President Mohammed Morsi demonstrators resulted in at least six people killed and close to two-hundred suffering injuries requiring medical attention. These reports came from both the Egyptian Health Ministry and Al Arabiya. The clashes broke the calm and quiet of the past two weeks and resulted from the largest demonstrations since the first weeks after Morsi government was replaced by a Military installed interim government until a new constitution and elections can be voted on. Those demonstrations had resulted in hundreds of protesters being killed and almost countless more suffering various extents of injuries. In the interim period numerous Muslim Brotherhood leadership have been arrested and held by the Egyptian military in their efforts to decapitate the leadership of the demonstrations. Chief among those arrested was the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie. As is the usual instigation for these demonstrations, five-hundred demonstrators came straight from Friday prayers leaving from central Cairo’s Sahib Rumi Mosque chanting, “Wake up, don’t be afraid, the army must leave!”; “The interior ministry are thugs!”; and “Egypt is Islamic, not secular!” This resulted in several thousands marching in several other Cairo districts and suburbs by the late afternoon.

 

The reinitiating of demonstrations, even of a somewhat lesser level of violence, does not bode well for proceeding with an orderly and peaceful transition back to a semblance of a functioning Egyptian democracy in whatever form is decided by the future constitution. Apart from the foreboding that the transit from the Muslim Brotherhood supported Peace and Justice Party dominated parliament with their candidate Morsi as President to a new non-Islamic secular government will be resisted by the Brotherhood and that they have sufficient middle level leadership which has stepped up to replace those who the Egyptian military has already arrested. This poses yet another challenge to the Egyptian people who are the impetus behind the call for new government which is secular and not under the thumb of Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

Unfortunately, transiting to secular governance may not be the biggest problem facing the world from out of Egypt. The problem will require the intervention of outside interests to force an alternative for the Coptic Christians, as they are victims of the Muslim Brotherhood supporters, while not raising sufficient concern that the Egyptian military or the Egyptian public will act; so they need an outside interest to lead the way to a solution. The Coptic Christians have become the punching bag for every angry group looking for somebody to blame and persecute to relieve their anger. The Coptic Christians are an easily found and defenseless group whose safety and property are not worthy of protection by the authorities. They have faced broad based violence resulting in burning down of their churches, businesses and even their homes. Some of the churches and monasteries that have been destroyed are of great historic value but since they are not Islamic they are considered worthless and not worth preserving by the Egyptian military, the Muslim Brotherhood or Salafists. Add to this the situation in the Sinai Peninsula with the infestation of terrorists and the Egyptian military and people have their challenges before them, and these are dangerous and serious challenges. The future in Egypt will eventually settle down, it just does not appear that eventually will come easy or soon. The one item which should not be left to the Egyptians is the safety and future of the Coptic Christians. This is one problem which will fall on the Christian world to address and will serve as the measure of the compassion in the Christian world. The simple truth is that the Egyptian military would probably assist to a minimal extent any Christian efforts if it would remove the Coptic Christians from being something which will only reflect poorly on the reputation of Egypt in the eyes of much of the world. Should the Egyptian authorities, military or civilians, find a solution which permits the Coptic Christians to be rescued from the dangers they currently are facing, would be a major step towards revamping the Egyptian’s reputations. Will anybody from the Christian world step forward or will the Christian world share the shame for the persecution of the Coptic Christians, one of the oldest and most pure to their roots Christian populations in the world.

 

Beyond the Cusp