Freedom House, NED, Soros/CIA NGO's, MOSSAD, MI6 convoluted Color Revolutions...?
Dr. Muqtedar Khan
This is a pivotal moment in the current history of the Arab World. If Egypt is transformed, it will transform the region.
Egypt is the moral and intellectual leader of the Arab World. It sets the cultural and political standards in the region. When Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel, the Arab wars against Israel ended. When Egypt decided to suppress its Islamic movement, the rest of the region followed suit and the Muslim brotherhood, in spite of its popularity and institutional reach into Arab civil society, remained marginal and powerless. When Egypt decided that Iran was the new enemy of the Arab people, most of the regimes in the area embraced this posture.
Egypt is the key to the Arab world. Its enduring authoritarian regime is the biggest hurdle to democracy and freedom in the region. Saudi Arabia has long been a rival to Egyptian hegemony in the Arab world. But a country that has never fought a war for its people does not truly inspire the Arab imagination. Whatever influence Saudi Arabia has, it has been bought with petro dollars. Egypt on the contrary has been the engine of Arab imagination, its intellectual and political center. If Egypt becomes democratic, democracy will become the norm in the Arab World.
In the past hundred and fifty years, we have witnessed four major political trends in the Arab world – Arab socialism, political Islam, Islamic modernism and Wahabism.
Except Wahabism – an anti-reason, anti-science, anti-democracy, anti-freedom, anti-tolerance, anti-pluralism ideology that originated in Saudi Arabia, the other three Arab intellectual trends have thrived in Egypt....
Arab socialism was a pan-Arab movement that sought to create a unified Arab nation, based on some of the values borrowed from the progressive movements of the nineteenth century. A combination of populist nationalism and socialism, it eventually degenerated into authoritarianism, as Arab nations failed to unite, failed to defeat their greatest enemy – Zionism – and gradually stagnated on the cultural and economic fronts. Their nominal achievements include the creation of nationalist identities and a rather weak and toothless Arab League. Egypt’s second President Jamaal Abdul Nasser (d. 1970) was the key luminary of this movement.
The current spate of uprisings and protests across the Arab World are perhaps the swan song of Arab socialism. If the Mubarak regime falls, other dictatorships will also fall. If Mubarak survives, the Arab world may continue to languish in despair.
Political Islam or the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement that aspires to create Islamic States, the panacea to all Muslim problems, the magic wand that will replace tyranny with harmony and restore Arab glory, is perhaps the biggest and the most institutionally ready alternative to Arab socialism in Egypt today. It will be the biggest player in a democratic Egypt unless all other factions form a coalition to balance it. However their anti-West rhetoric may alienate Egypt from the West and undermine its economic prospects and tourism industry and effectively fail to resolve the problems that trigger the current uprising. If they focus on symbolic goals then they will tear Egypt apart, but if they moderate their rhetoric and focus more on substantive changes – economy, corruption, job creation — they could become a positive force in Egypt and the region.
The Muslim Brotherhood was slow to join the current uprising and so far is not central to the protests.
There are other groups in Egypt, which are less organized and less influential. There are progressives, old-fashioned Marxists and neoliberals who all desire regime change in Egypt. It is possible that the Egyptian elite that benefitted from the Mubarak regime and his current party, The National Democratic Party (NDP) may reconstitute itself as a nationalist alliance and compete with the Muslim Brotherhood for power. This group maybe more acceptable to the West but it will be tainted by the corruption of the current regime and may not be acceptable to the Egyptian people.
Islamic modernism is an important facet of Egyptian intellectual heritage which experienced its peak during the time of Muhammed Abduh. It combines Islamic values, specially its focus on justice and personal virtue with equality. Islamic modernism seeks to find a path compatible with Islam and democracy, faith and reason, religion and science. Its institutional form in Egyptian politics is the Al Wasat party. It is a bridge between the secularist and the pro-democracy Islamists.
In a free and democratic Egypt, where the youth are aspiring for openness, for global connectivity and for opportunities to fulfill their potential; where the pious still dream of living in a virtuous republic, and the traditionalist hope to find accommodation with the modern and the postmodern, Al Wasat will thrive. It is an option that none will reject outright. The only question remains, can they deliver if given the opportunity?
I am not sure if Egypt will be transformed into a democratic and open society. The possibility that a new strongman will replace the old along with some cosmetic changes is a more likely outcome. But nevertheless Egypt and the Arab World have been presented with a historic opportunity; I pray that they will grasp it firmly.
The Quran suggests that God will not institute change until people themselves change. Systematic change does not come from mere regime changes. Egyptians will have to change their culture, their normative habits and their political concerns to bring about an enduring and beneficial change. Those of us, who wish them well, hope that they will indeed rise to the occasion.
I am reminded of Shakespeare who penned the following words for Brutus but they also speak to the Egyptian people:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune…
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.
Dr. Muqtedar Khan is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Delaware and Fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
Deliberate disinformation – these US soft power regime change ops are carried out under aegis of US state dept/ USAID/NED i. e. CIA, via their trusty ‘democracy-human rights’ Soros NGOs in collaboration with social network ‘strategic information’ warfare:
http://www.burbankdigest.com/,
US State Department Chooses April 6th Movement To Take Part In Anti-Extremism Conference
11/11/08 ....
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=18771
http://www.sunna.info/antiwahabies/wahhabies/htm/spy1.htm
http://www.sunna.info/antiwahabies/wahhabies/htm/spy2.htm
To add insult to injury, more disinformation in Congress, because CIA does not report any significant covert operations to the intelligence committees on the Hill for decades....
A US Congressional hearing over a career CIA official’s promotion turned into a heated exchange on Thursday, as Congress members accused America’s intelligence community of failing to provide forewarning of the political instability in Egypt. Speaking before the US Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, Stephanie O’Sullivan, former Director of the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology, was faced with an unexpected barrage of questions concerning the Agency’s alleged failure to provide US policy planners with accurate warning of the Egyptian popular uprising. Shortly after the start of the hearing, which was intended to deliberate O’Sullivan’s nomination for the position of Deputy Director of the Office of Director of National Intelligence, attention turned to Egypt, with members of the Committee pressuring the CIA executive to explain why the US intelligence community had failed to issue ample warnings on Egypt. O’Sullivan responded repeatedly that the CIA and other US intelligence services had provided warnings to Obama Administration officials in November and December of 2010, about extreme political volatility in North Africa. “We warned on instability”, said O’Sullivan, though “not in [...] detail”, as “we didn’t know what the triggering mechanism would be”. She insisted that US intelligence reports “anticipated and highlighted” the possible spread of the Tunisian revolt, and “warned that unrest in Egypt would likely gain momentum and could threaten the regime”. However, speaking after the heated exchange Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Diane Feinstein (D-CA) appeared unconvinced by O’Sullivan’s arguments, and said that the intelligence reports she had seen were significantly lacking in collection. The Washington Post interprets the heated exchange as symptomatic of “emerging tensions” between the US intelligence community, on the one hand, and the White House and Democratic Congress members on the other, concerning the quality of intelligence on Egypt. In a separate development, Richard L. Palmer, a former CIA station chief who retired from the Agency in 1998, opined that “the situation is deteriorating to the point that Egypt will probably go the brink of or actually begin a civil war on 04 February 2011”.
Mubarak and Sadat - . The Egyptian military owns factories, hotels and businesses. Its generals are very wealthy members of Egypt's elite. There are factions within the military.Credit Agricole bank says that Egypt's political crisis is costing Egypt at least $310 million per day.
(Egypt protests cost $310M per day)
Tourism has been wrecked; factories have been closed.
Food has shot up in price.
The Credit Agricole bank forecasts a big drop in Egypt's economic growth, as a result of the protests.
Of course, Tunisia is now much poorer.
What about the very powerful CIA-Mossad-NATO faction within the Egyptian military?
"Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi and senior army officials visited the Tahrir square yesterday in a sign that Egypt's most powerful institution was sanctioning the demonstration."
(Egypt protests e)
A power struggle is going on.
"The balance of power was teetering in Egypt this morning amid reports of an assassination attempt on the newly-appointed vice president." (Assassination attempt on Omar Suleiman Mail Online)
Could Vice President Suleiman secretly be part of the CIA-Mossad-NATO faction?
"The Obama administration and Egyptian officials are reported to have discussed a proposal for Mubarak to step down immediately and cede power to a transitional government (NYT) headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military."
Afghanistan has not improved as a result of revolution. This is Farshid
Who is 'plotting' with the Americans?
"Officials from both governments are continuing talks about a plan in which Mr. Suleiman, backed by Lt. Gen. Sami Enan, chief of the Egyptian armed forces, and Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the defense minister, would immediately begin a process of constitutional reform.
"The proposal calls for the transitional government to invite members from a broad range of opposition groups, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood..." (White House and Egypt Discuss Plan for Mubarak's Exit - )
The Muslim Brotherhood has long been a tool of MI6 and the CIA.
stevemccurry.wordpress.com/
So, the Egyptian generals will stay rich.
Egypt will be weaker and more vulnerable, at least in the short term....
Israel gains....?
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Life expectancy
Egypt 71.3 years (before its political turmoil)
Afghanistan (after its political turmoil) 44.64 years
Chaos in Cairo was the overriding meme and the solution proposed by globalists will be a military one.
So how did the chaos happen. The UK/USA/Israel used every dirty trick in the book to make it happen. Backing both sides, using their corporate media to lie about it, and engaging in violence. Typical spy shit...., typical media coverage....
