RSS« A Really Bad Idea. | Dollar, FT Obs »
February 24, 2005
On Egypt
The Washington Post, making up for a moronic editorial on Lebanon gets back in its game on this issue:
Editorial
Egypt's Brutal Answer
Thursday, February 24, 2005; Page A20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48688-2005Feb23.html
ON MONDAY President Bush again called on Egypt to "lead the way" toward democratic change in the Middle East. Apparently Hosni Mubarak, the country's leader for the past 24 years, wasn't listening. Later that same day, Mr. Mubarak's agents renewed their "interrogation" of Ayman Nour, the imprisoned head of the liberal Tomorrow Party. Six hours later -- at 1 a.m. -- Mr. Nour, a diabetic with a history of heart trouble, was "sweating, vomiting and holding his left arm," his wife told the Reuters news agency. Authorities refused his doctor's request that he be hospitalized; instead, he was taken Tuesday to a prison clinic. The Egyptian Human Rights Organization has issued a statement warning that Mr. Nour's life is in danger. Mr. Mubarak's relationship with the United States, and the U.S. aid that props up his regime, should be in danger too.
Emphasis added
One can only hope so.
I am not a fan, as anyone who reads me knows, of long ball transformation crap.
I prefer evolutionary work. However, Egypt is a genuine abcess, and worst of all, unlike Syria, one where everyone can point its finger at the United States (and to a lesser extent, 'The West') for helping create. Mubarek is a whore, but as I noted, we ain't no kinda pimp.
..... Last fall Mr. Nour managed to legally register the Tomorrow Party; authorities may have calculated he would split the opposition without attracting a significant following. Instead, Mr. Nour almost immediately began campaigning against Mr. Mubarak's plans to reelect himself as president in an uncontested "referendum" later this year. A movement he helped to organize, popularly known by its slogan of "kifaya," or "enough," has been holding unprecedented public demonstrations. The first one in December attracted about 50 people; the fourth, on Monday at Cairo University, gathered more than 500.
Those of you who have never been to Egypt may not understand what those numbers mean. Trivial on one level, Egypt is a real police state where large gatherings get you into serious trouble. The Blue Tin Cans come around and then you get to show everyone the Circus of the Damned schtick - get bundled up all nice in the Blue Tin Cans, but you can stick your pitiful little hands out the window, and then the trucks trundle around - an obvious statement.
The charge against Mr. Nour, that he is responsible for the forgery of some of the petitions submitted to register his party, is dismissed as groundless by independent Egyptian lawyers. In truth, he is in jail because, like Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated last week, he offered a fresh democratic alternative in a Middle East stirred by the votes of Iraqis and Palestinians. Mr. Nour, like most of the rest of the Egyptian opposition, is not proposing a revolution. Their demand is that Mr. Mubarak lift repressive "emergency" laws and agree to constitutional reforms that would make future elections democratic. Many Egyptian activists, like Mr. Nour, would probably agree to an extension of the president's term in exchange for his commitment to the constitutional change. The alternative, they point out, is not the "stability" Mr. Mubarak claims to offer, but merely more of the stagnation that has made Egypt a prime breeding ground for Islamic extremists, including many of the leaders of al Qaeda.
Well, leaving aside the absurd Rafiq Hariri reference (fresh?!? All one needs to do is get assasinated to get some post mortem lionization I guess).
I find the Iraqi connexion suspect, it's not a big lesson yet. It may be soon, but not yet.
The Bush administration has been relatively assertive in protesting Mr. Nour's imprisonment, but Mr. Mubarak has been provocative in his defiance. Last week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hinted she might not attend an upcoming meeting in Egypt of the Arab League and the Group of Eight industrial nations if Mr. Nour's case was not resolved; Mr. Mubarak responded by canceling the meeting. His answer to Mr. Bush's appeal for steps toward reform has been to order a new wave of anti-American incitement in the state-run press and to have his goons rough up a man who proposes exactly the moderate, step-by-step change that Mr. Bush advocates -- and that Egypt desperately needs. Mr. Mubarak is no longer testing Mr. Bush; he is spitting in his face. It's a daring, maybe desperate act for a 76-year-old despot who would not survive without billions in U.S. subsidies. Egypt's future -- and Ayman Nour's life -- may depend on Mr. Bush's response.
Rather than Syria, Egypt. If Bush is serious, this is the place. If Syria goes to hell... well the West never was Syria's friend and the blame is not really there. Egypt....showing one is willing to put the corrupt shrimp eating fat bastard in his place would be a very good thing.
Even if it risked a serious confrontation. Mubarek is a false friend.
Posted by The Lounsbury at February 24, 2005 06:30 PM
Filed Under:
Jan-July 2005
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.aqoul.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/620
