On January 30, 1033, Adolph Hitler was appointed chancellor of a coalition German government. The theory was that by sharing power with him in a democratically elected government he would be less dangerous. But Adolph Hitler had little interest in democracy or a democratic transition of power. The NAZI party never had the support of a majority of the people, but once they were invited into this “power sharing” “coalition,” the end was near. Within a very short period of time, Hitler destroyed all his political opposition and took over as absolute dictator. Hitler and the Nazi Party had zero interest in co-existing with anyone.
There were at least some people in the German army who knew that Hitler was bad news. Yet there does not appear to have been any attempt at a military coup until Germany was on its way to defeat in World War II. So the question is: “if the German military had deposed Hitler, before he had a change to take complete control, would that have been a good thing or a bad thing?
Morsi was elected President of Egypt by a somewhat shaky process. There were several candidates and Morsi ended up in a run-off with Ahmed Shafik, who had been prime minister under Mubarak. Even though a majority of Egyptians did not want the Muslim Brotherhood, in a choice between a Mubarak clone and Morsi, they chose Morsi. It was a big mistake. Almost immediately, Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood tried to assume total control.
President Mohammed Morsi declared himself above any court as guardian of Egypt’s revolution. The Muslim Brotherhood, with its extremist agenda, was taking over. No one should have been surprised by this. Following is the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood:
“Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest aspiration.”
The Muslim Brotherhood, like the Nazi Party in German, has zero interest in sharing power with anyone. They viewed the “democratic elections” in Egypt exactly the same way Adolph Hitler viewed elections in Germany in 1933. They would play the game, long enough to gain power, but once they got in power they quickly took over.
There were people in Egypt who figured this out. One of them was quoted in the New York Times article referred to above:
Amr Hamzawy pointed out that Egypt was facing a horrifying coup against legitimacy and the rule of law and a complete assassination of the democratic transition.
Obama either wanted Muslim extremists to take over Egypt, or he was too naïve to realize why that would be a major problem. Either way, if the Egyptian people were expecting help from the United States, they were in for a long wait.
This takeover by the Egyptian military could be a very good thing. There is a reason so many people in Egypt are celebrating tonight. They are definitely not cheering for Barack Obama.
Courage is contagious. There are already rumors that moderate Palestinians may finally gain the courage to throw out Hamas. All over the Muslim world there are signs of people willing to stand up to Muslim extremists.
The wise move by the United States would be to recognize that this coup is not necessarily a bad thing and to at least acknowledge why it was necessary. But, not President Obama. Following is the White House statement:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/03/statement-president-barack-obama-egypt
we are deeply concerned by the decision of the Egyptian Armed Forces to remove President Morsy and suspend the Egyptian constitution. I now call on the Egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process, and to avoid any arbitrary arrests of President Morsy and his supporters. Given today’s developments, I have also directed the relevant departments and agencies to review the implications under U.S. law for our assistance to the Government of Egypt.
A terrorist organization dedicated to destroying the United States has been thrown out of power so now Obama wants to cut aid to Egypt?
Obama is asking the Egyptian military to do something incredibly stupid. The arrest of President Morsi and top leaders in the Muslim Brotherhood may prevent a bloody civil war. The Egyptian military removed Morsi because they had no choice. There is no potential for a true Democracy in Egypt if the Muslim Brotherhood is part of the equation. If that was not obvious before Morsi was elected, it was sure obvious when he tried to assume absolute power.
The Muslim Brotherhood was and is a terrorist organization with zero tolerance for anyone who gets in their way. One of the reasons Egypt was reasonably stable for all those years was that the Mubarak regime clamped down on the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptian military is now rounding them up again and that is by far the best news out of Egypt for a long time. Asking the new Egyptian government to tolerate the Muslim Brotherhood is akin to asking the Germans to tolerate the Nazi party under Adolph Hitler. You cannot reach a reasonable compromise or even consider sharing of power with those who are dedicated to exterminating opponents.
I am sure that there are some tough times ahead for Egypt. But the action by the Egyptian military may give Egypt a chance for real democracy. If the people are given a choice, my guess is that they will reject the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim extremists.
One thing is certain. If the Muslim Brotherhood had been allowed to gain total control, democracy in Egypt would have been nothing more than a distant memory. Perhaps someone should explain that to Obama.
(When I original wrote this I spelt Morsi as Morsy. That is the way the White House spelt it on the official press release. I guess I should have expected them to muck that up too!)
TDM