Egypt
August 20, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims that Israel was behind the ouster of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi. Who knew that Israel could cause hundreds of thousands of Egyptians to take to the streets on its behalf and cause the Egyptian army to do its bidding? Erdogan is too responsible to make this sort of allegation without proof. “We have a document in our hands,” he assured a gathering
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August 20, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Saudi Arabia promised to compensate Egypt for every bit of aid that the U.S. or other Western countries might withdraw in the response to the Egyptian military’s crackdown against its Muslim Brotherhood opponents. This move highlights the growing irrelevance of the U.S. in the Middle East — a positive development in the short-term, given that U.S. Middle East policy is set by President Obama. As we know, nature abhors
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August 20, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I find it absolutely bizarre how little attention is paid to the fundamental nature of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is not a legitimate political party. Its objects are not consistent with democracy or democratic goals. It is, as Steve Hayward concisely commented, “a fascist political faction with murderous intent. Full stop.” Its goal is the (re)establishment of an Islamic caliphate. Forget Barack Obama, lost in Cloud Cuckooland. Do John McCain,
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August 19, 2013 — Scott Johnson
Rod Nordland’s New York Times story reporting that Egypt’s security forces killed 36 Islamists in their custody on Sunday also carries a quote from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Nordland notes that Erdogan had given “a blistering speech in support of the Muslim Brotherhood” and “likened Egypt’s military leader, General Sisi, to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria” on Saturday. Nordland then offers this quote from Erdogan’s Saturday speech: “There
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August 18, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Beats me. But Michael Ledeen thinks he knows, and he’s a pretty astute observer, so let’s turn the floor over to him for a while. First, Michael says, we need to stop looking at events country by country and recognize that a global war is in progress: The war is easily described: there is a global alliance of radical leftists and radical Islamists, supported by a group of countries that
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August 17, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The biggest news story that broke during my stay in Europe was the Egyptian military’s move against the Muslim Brotherhood, and the ensuing bloodshed. The story received extensive coverage on French and British television and virtually non-stop coverage on CNN International. The latter outlet treated viewers to endless moralizing by Secretary of State Kerry and President Obama directed primarily at the Egyptian government. Given the extent of the bloodshed, I
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August 17, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Here’s a historical counter-factual thought experiment for you: suppose the German military, in the spring of 1933, decided that the ascension of Hitler and his Nazis was bad news for Germany, moved to remove Hitler by a coup, outlawed the Nazi party, and in ruling henceforth by military decree thereby ended more than a decade of democratic weakness that was the Weimar Republic. What judgment would you cast? (Turns out
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July 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Has the United States ever had a more clueless Secretary of State than John Kerry? Perhaps, but I can’t think of one. Not long ago, James Rosen traveled with Kerry to Egypt, among other places. Kerry met for two and half hours with then-President Mohammed Morsi. According to Rosen’s report in Playboy (yes, Playboy): Kerry emerged from [the meeting] so persuaded of Morsi’s sincerity in pledging to administer the IMF
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July 9, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Rand Paul is a clown. He demonstrated as much with his grandstanding filibuster to protect us from being attacked by drones while sitting in our local café. Paul recently tweeted: “Democratic authoritarianism is replaced with military junta. American neocons say send them more of your money.” This is ridiculous. First, is it really “neoconservative” to advocate sending money to a military junta that has just overthrown a democratically elected government?
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July 6, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier today, Egyptian state media announced that Mohamed ElBaradei, a former chief of the U.N. nuclear agency, had been appointed Egypt’s interim prime minister. But later, according to the Washington Post, the announcement was “rolled back” after Islamists who joined in the coalition against ousted president Morsi threatened to withdraw their support if ElBaradei is installed. El Baradei, who may yet be selected, is seen as a secularist and is
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July 6, 2013 — Scott Johnson
On Wednesday night the White House issued President Obama’s statement on events in Egypt including the removal of President Morsi from power. The statement is posted here. Please check it out. As we have been noting, President Obama early on staked his claim to support of the Muslim Brotherhood as the wave of the future in Egypt. He is therefore disappointed in Morsi’s removal and vaguely threatening about the consequences.
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July 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Mosheh Oinounou of CBS has tweeted a photo of John Kerry’s yacht, the “Isabel,” and claimed that a CBS producer spotted Kerry on board Wednesday, the day of Mohammed Morsi’s ouster. According to Oinounou, when the producer shouted “Morsi,” she received no response. However, the State Department denies that Kerry was on his yacht during the crisis. And it insists that, although he wasn’t in Washington at the national security
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July 5, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
David Goldman shows, among other things, that the Egyptian coup signals that Saudi Arabia, not the U.S., will have the leading foreign role in Egypt’s affairs going forward. At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, that’s probably a good thing for Egypt under the present circumstances. I have suggested, and Goldman goes a long way towards demonstrating, that the Egyptian turmoil is more about economics than politics. The Saudis might just
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July 5, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In her weekly column Caroline Glick reviews the events of the past week in Egypt. Among other things, according to Glick, they reveal America’s “self-induced smallness.” Confirming a few points we have made here over the week and extending them to Morsi’s removal from power, Glick notes: US Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson and Obama remained the Muslim Brotherhood’s greatest champions as the forces began to gather ahead of this
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July 3, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
It turns out that President Obama isn’t any better at picking winning regimes abroad than he is at picking winning businesses at home. Today, the government of President Morsi, which Obama had supported almost unreservedly for a year, was toppled by the military in response to mass protests. Some will say that Obama didn’t pick the Egyptian regime, the people of Egypt did, in an election. But an American president
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July 3, 2013 — Steven Hayward
On the eve of our July 4 celebration of the Declaration of Independence, deep dish theoreticians can certainly go on about the problem of the concrete meaning of “consent” of the governed as it is expressed in the Declaration. This abstract principle certainly has problems in reality: does someone “consent” to the principles and present government of the United States just because he is born here? Casting votes in successive,
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July 3, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Egyptian protests that threaten the power of Mohammed Morsi, the nation’s Islamist president, are a very welcome development. But lest anyone conclude that all opposition to Morsi is benign, check out the photo accompanying yesterday’s New York Times article about the demonstrations, in which Morsi’s face appears inside the Star of David on the Israeli flag. Given Egypt’s parlous economic situation and inherent instability, is it far-fetched to hypothesize
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