Posted on 11/09/2011 1:22:46 PM PST by Driftwood1
So says President Obama's State Department, arguing that conditions should not be put on aid to Egypt.
Egypt's military rulers have been swiftly moving out of benefit-of-the-doubt territory.
They've arrested bloggers and activists, jailed civilians with military trials for holding the wrong political opinions, and taken steps to protect their own immunity from civilian oversight when a new Egyptian constitution is written.
The latest flap is over a set of proposed "constitutional principles" that the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt's current military rulers, is urging be adopted before parliamentary elections are held. Those are scheduled to start this month. Early drafts sought to place the military's budget and behavior beyond the reach of civilian oversight. They also sought to give Egypt's "executive" (which will be the military, at least until presidential elections are held, probably in 2013) a lot of power to intervene in the constitution-writing process, and tried to impose the conditions under which the document could be drafted, something that would ordinarily fall to an elected parliament.
While the proposed document is being reworked, the idea of an Egyptian military willing to get out of the way and let civilian politicians chart Egypt's future has been taking a lot of knocks.
These worrying signs have been responded to by some in Congress, who have proposed making America's annual $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt conditional on a transition to democracy. President Obama's State Department, however, is having none of it.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Historically, it’s real hard to dislodge a military junta once they’ve seized power.
This is all just going swimmingly isn’t it Hussein?
According to plan? Lovely.
Doesn’t sound like that “Arab Spring democracy” thing is working out for Barry and Hillary. Well, maybe the unions here in this country can send them some more pizza while they’re trying to work it out.
The real reason Obama betrayed Mubarak is because Mubarak wished to maintain the status quo with Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian military is far more anti-Semitic.
I have a strong suspicion that the Egyptian military is thinking of itself much like the Turkish military used to, as the defender of the secular state, opposed to the intrigues of Islamists who want to take it over.
If this is the case, I am more than willing for them to take their time before handing over power, in carefully controlled and supervised elections.
Epecting real Democracy out of Muslims is like looking for the solution to Dark Matter in the brain of a Neanderthal.
The best case scenario is for the military to be in power in Egypt in perpetuity.
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