The fundamental problem remains one of trust and the absence of legitimate institutions. The political polarization of the last year and a half, fueled by all too many political and rhetorical mistakes on all sides, has left profound scars. The Shafiq voters in the Presidential election have hardly reconciled themselves to Morsi, and most activists and revolutionaries remain as alienated as ever from a political struggle dominated by the military and the Brotherhood. On top of the polarization comes the legal Calvinball, where rules and legal institutions are fundamentally contested and no arbiter has uncontested judicial authority. And then there's the regrettable absence of a Parliament, another casualty of the pre-election institutional warfare. With so much in flux and so much distrust, every move, no matter how minor, becomes deeply laden with potential treachery and disaster. And this was no minor move.
In most cases, I would think that the removal of the SCAF's senior leadership and the assertion of civilian control by an elected government would be celebrated as a major triumph in the push for a transition to a civil, democratic state. But the deeply rooted fears of the Muslim Brotherhood, fueled by recognition of their popular strength and doubts about their democratic convictions, prevents any easy acceptance of that reading in many quarters. That's why the next few weeks will be crucial, as Morsi makes clear what kind of constitutional process he really intends and as the military and the anti-Islamist trends in Egyptian politics weigh their next moves.
― goole, Monday, 13 August 2012 16:43 (eleven years ago) link
go morsi!!!
― the late great, Monday, 13 August 2012 19:17 (eleven years ago) link
sudan now?
http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/06/28/sudans_protests
― goole, Wednesday, 15 August 2012 16:05 (eleven years ago) link
i thought sudan barely has govt as it is??
― the late great, Wednesday, 15 August 2012 16:08 (eleven years ago) link
omar bashir is still around, that's all i know tbh
― goole, Wednesday, 15 August 2012 16:12 (eleven years ago) link
exactly how eager for war w/Syria is Turkey...? this whole thing seems to be spiralling into worst-case-scenario territory
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 11 October 2012 15:48 (eleven years ago) link
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324399404578583932317286550.html wow at the WSJ :
"Egyptians would be lucky if their new ruling generals turn out to be in the mold of Chile's Augusto Pinochet, who took power amid chaos but hired free-market reformers and midwifed a transition to democracy."
― dsb, Monday, 8 July 2013 16:35 (ten years ago) link
rolling middle east 2013 thread
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 9 July 2013 04:25 (ten years ago) link
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/egypt-sentences-3-al-jazeera-reporters
US keeps giving Egypt military aid so that it can have an influence there, says the US gov. This latest "trial" again shows the lack of influence
― curmudgeon, Monday, 23 June 2014 15:26 (nine years ago) link
Oops, already discussed over in this other thread:
Rolling MENA 2014
― curmudgeon, Monday, 23 June 2014 15:28 (nine years ago) link
Why Obama and Clinton make no secrets of seeking out Kissinger for advice and photo ops. They're his children.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/16/egypts-u-s-backed-military-regime-brutalizing-student-protestors/
― this horrible, rotten slog to rigor mortis (Dr Morbius), Friday, 17 October 2014 14:32 (nine years ago) link
I'm with you re this one.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 17 October 2014 20:11 (nine years ago) link
we like giving lip service to democracy but what we really want more than anything else is stability and our economic interests secure. that trumps everything.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 17 October 2014 20:16 (nine years ago) link
In the world of realpolitik those have always trumped everything. And an oligarchy is more likely to align with our interests than would a democracy atm, because current U.S. government functions as an oligarchy more than a democracy.
― Aimless, Friday, 17 October 2014 21:01 (nine years ago) link
i think it's facile to say that an oligarchy will necessarily have the same or similar interests as another oligarchy. that would make geopolitics much simpler than it is.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 17 October 2014 21:20 (nine years ago) link
also US foreign policy has never been subject to the sort of "democracy" that domestic politics have
but you'll get no argument from me re. our egypt policy being atrocious
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 17 October 2014 21:21 (nine years ago) link
Q: is "realpolitik" really just a 20th Century term for "the way empire has always functioned"?
― my jaw left (Hurting 2), Friday, 17 October 2014 21:23 (nine years ago) link
we don't have an empire, i heard Bill Maher say so.
― this horrible, rotten slog to rigor mortis (Dr Morbius), Friday, 17 October 2014 21:31 (nine years ago) link
this is the thread where we self-congratulatorily affirm the fact of an american empire to one another
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 17 October 2014 21:55 (nine years ago) link
http://www.feelnumb.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/album-cover-rage-against-the-machine-evil-empire.jpg
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Saturday, 18 October 2014 03:19 (nine years ago) link
woah lol huge soz
@sharifkouddousState Dept official in 2010 email from Egypt to Hillary Clinton about Mubarak government: "They love you here"
https://twitter.com/sharifkouddous/status/711883543601942528
― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Monday, 21 March 2016 14:52 (eight years ago) link
Ergodan below 50%
🔴#SONDAKİKA | Anadolu Ajansı'na göre Tayyip Erdoğan'ın oyu %50'nin altına düştü. (%49.99)— ibrahim Haskoloğlu (@haskologlu) May 14, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 14 May 2023 20:10 (eleven months ago) link
*Erdogan
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 14 May 2023 20:13 (eleven months ago) link