Some Thoughts on Egypt

All of the talk and tumult over Egypt has been aggravating my damaged mind with increasing regularity. First, I *really* wish people would stop referring to President Hosni Mubarak as a “pharaoh”. You can pick out the most terminally inbred retard from all of them and it is still an insult to such a lofty title of those giants of the ancient world to apply it to Mubarak. Secondly, I am *really* getting sick of the comparisons to Imperial Iran and the constant refrain of “Well, the Shah was a bad guy too but what replaced him was worse…” The Shah was NOT a “bad guy”. It is absolutely no exaggeration to say that he was the most humane and benevolent leader modern Persia/Iran has had. The only people who treated in a less than kind way by the Shah were commie revolutionaries and radical terrorists; both of whom could be dealt with in no other way and neither of whom anyone with the slightest bit of decency should have any sympathy for whatever.

Similarly, I fail to understand why everyone is saying that this situation reminds them so much of the Islamic Revolution in Iran (particularly those skeptical of the way things are going). Why do they not say it reminds them of what happened in Egypt? Let the record show that, just as in Iran, the U.S. was also passively cooperative in the overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy. King Farouk was written off by the United States, the CIA wanted to see him go and had plans for how to handle the situation and, just like the Shah, when his enemies moved against him, King Farouk naively appealed to the United States for help but of course none was forthcoming. Gamal Abdel Nasser and other army officers overthrew the King and, once all was said and done, Egypt was a republic with Nasser as president. Like many causing trouble in Egypt today, he had his own ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, he was a militant pan-Arab nationalist and although he claimed to be “un-aligned” his ties to the Soviet Union were extensive and well documented. He did, however, anger both the Communists and the Muslim Brotherhood when he made Egypt a single-party dictatorship, cutting out all groups but his own.

This first came to my mind when one of the cable news channels showed a group of Egyptian protestors voicing anger at the U.S. President, demanding, “Where are you Obama?” Which underlines why most Americans have become rather callous about how they are viewed in the rest of the world. The U.S. will be blamed by some in any event, either for getting involved or for not getting involved. Then, of course, there are those shameless few who will harangue the U.S. to get involved only to condemn them for doing so after they find they don’t like the results. As far as I’m concerned, the slate should be wiped clean on that front and the U.S. give isolationism another try. And not just “non-interference” but full blown isolationism. Just don’t expect me to be entirely consistent on that front, but I’m tempted, I’m really tempted.

However, if there is anything that we should have learned by now, yet precious few seem to, is that democracy is not the answer to every problem. I just don’t understand the mentality. Are the advocates *really* so diluted as to think that the majority will always agree with them? How many times does the democratic process fail, how many times is an elected or widely popular leader have to tear the world apart before we all get the message that the 51% of the public is not infallible? Besides which, in case any haven’t noticed (and if you haven’t you should seek psychiatric help -I can give you some phone numbers) it is all a colossal lie anyway. Vice President Joe Biden recently said that Mubarak was not a dictator. Now, I don’t think Biden has the sense that God gave geese but I have to feel a little for him now that he’s being ridiculed for that statement. Until the riots started every U.S. administration in recent years would have said the same.

I do not expect the U.S. or the E.U. (or the U.N. while we’re listing initials) to do anything about Egypt, nor would I want them to. However, the utter, flaming, shameless *hypocrisy* constantly spouted makes me mad enough to chew glass. We’ve had Obama and company parade before us saying how the U.S. supports universal human rights, supports the Egyptian people, wants their demands met but wants no bloodshed on either side and wants Mubarak to turn the internet back on. All this while they are still taking down the decorations from the party Obama just threw for the President of Communist China! A president who himself butchered countless innocent people while serving as governor of occupied Tibet and was one of the first party leaders to call for the violent suppression of the pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square! Robert Gibbs said that the Obama administration does not ‘take sides’ in conflicts between the Egyptian people and the government. Well, news flash, YES they do. So does virtually every other country in the western world.

They can talk democracy all they want but the fact is that no one would care in the least about Egypt if it wasn’t for the Suez. If there is a horribly oppressive government that doesn’t make trouble and allows the oil through, no one will really care how oppressive they are. We may annoy the Chinese about their human rights record but we know, and they know, that no one is going to do anything about it. I do wish that King Fuad II had a higher profile in Egypt (I believe it was only last year that he gave his first interview in Arabic for Egyptian TV). He could hardly do worse than the succession of generals-turned-presidents have done but he would also face the same hard choices of many monarchs in the region; trying to please two diametrically opposed parts of the world at the same time while trying to appear simultaneously strong and “democratic”. I cannot see the monarchists of Egypt having much influence here, unfortunately. If a more moderate regime is established they may at least have the chance to compete more openly in the marketplace of ideas but, alas, I cannot be too hopeful. Mobs of angry people in the streets do not tend to foreshadow the establishment of moderate and benevolent governments.