In Egypt, the Military Is the Only Chance

National Review Online ^ | 8/17/2013 | Andrew C. McCarthy

[sheikdetailfeather]

To add to Stanley’s sage observations (both today and earlier this week), I argue in this weekend’s column that elections are not democracy and, in fact, that popular elections in a sharia culture that inevitably empower Islamic supremacists are innately anti-democratic – which is why our commentariat ought to stop referring to Mohamed Morsi as Egypt’s “democratically elected” president. He is (or was) the popularly-elected in an anti-democratic society.

[sheikdetailfeather]

"How could the Obama administration allow things to get to a point where authentic Egyptian democrats – who are a besieged minority – would justifiably believe, to their stunned dismay, that the United States is aligned with Badi and the Brothers, committed enemies of America and the West?"

[Publius]

Barry Goldwater identified this problem half a century ago.

Back then, the UN and the US Foreign Policy Community had an absolute mania for decolonizing Africa and other parts of the world. Goldwater called this a fool's errand. He pointed out that some people aren't ready for democracy, and for cultural and religious reasons they may never be. He predicted that the mania for democratization would only create a playground for the CIA and KGB. He argued for a hard-headed approach where it would be best for a nation to be ruled by a benevolent dictator, and one preferably loyal to the US, not the Soviet Union.

He was excoriated by the Mainstream Media for "wrong-headed thinking" and an "unprogressive" approach. But history proved him right. Islam will have to go through something like the Enlightenment before it can support democracy.

[Innovative]

McCarthy always hits the nail on the head.

People need to face reality.

Highly recommended reading for everyone.

McCarthy’s longer article:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/356019/egypts-one-chance-democracy-andrew-c-mccarthy

[Innovative]

Print version — all on one page:

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/356019/print

[sheikdetailfeather]

Thanks!

[silverleaf]

uh, because Obama IS aligned with committed enemies of America and the west (and Israel)

He shares their values

He has open members of the muslim brotherhood working as advisors in his inner circle, and this continues- no accelerates - a long long period of cultivation and penetration

Long - but worth reading

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3672/muslim-brotherhood-us-government

[NonValueAdded]

Let's review: From an Egyptian in Alexandria

[Jumper]

The Egyptian People (majority) and the Military are now hunting down the MB before they had the chance to do what has happened in Turkey the past 10-years. The entire reason Turkey was rejected from EU Membership was because of the Religious fanatic leadership purging the government and military transforming into an Islamic backwards nation.

Good luck to the Egyptian military and people as they give no sanctuary or quarter to the MB.

[depressed in 06]

The Muslim Brotherhood are like cockroaches, the solution is Raid.

[Olog-hai]

The military is the only chance at what? Sisi is a radical who hates Israel.

[nathanbedford]

No surprise that leftists criticized Goldwater for being "unprogressive" for his abandonment of Wilsonian foreign policy.

The old saw, "democracies do not make war on each other" is true as far as it goes but it does not go far in explaining what goes into making a democracy. Wilsonian ideals led us astray in Iraq and in Afghanistan but I suspect there is something far more sinister afoot motivating the Obama administration's foreign policy in support of The Muslim Brotherhood.

The intimacies are just too great to be explained away as merely good statecraft. The infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into this administration has been documented and one need point to no more evidence than Hillary Clinton's Chief of Staff.

Some day all will be revealed.

[sheikdetailfeather]

Thanks! Yes. Egypt is ridding its country of radicals and the U.S. is embracing same. WAKE UP AMERICA.

[Olog-hai]

They have radicals in charge right now. They only exchanged one set of radicals for another.

[apoliticalone]

“Barry Goldwater identified this problem half a century ago.”

Yet there are people in our government both D&R that think we should be poking our nose into the business of every country in the world changing regimes and governments, and it ends up they all hate us.

Take care of the USA economically and financially and we’ll be strong enough to defend the USA. But keep up this spreading democracy and invading sovereign nations, and we’ll end up like the Roman Empire. Unfortunately there is now too much influence in government from those making big bucks from our endless foreign military endeavors.

[flaglady47]

“They have radicals in charge right now. They only exchanged one set of radicals for another.”

It’s the lesser of two evils. You’ve only got two choices. Is your choice Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood? If not, there is only one other choice at this time, and that is the Egyptian army. Choose your poison. I would cast my lot with the Egyptian army any day. We can deal with them. No one can deal with the MB and Morsi, who would change Egypt into a terrorist Islamic state under Sharia law. It’s a fools errand to constantly harp against the current leadership backed by the Eyptian army, as you do on every Egypt thread. It becomes tiresome.

[JoeFromSidney]

A military coup may not lead to "democracy," but in Egypt it may well lead to freedom. The African formula of "one man, one vote, one time," doesn't lead to freedom. I value freedom far more than I value democracy. After all, democracy, like aristocracy, is just a scheme for deciding who will be the next ruler. Neither one guarantees a good ruler, nor does either one guarantee freedom. The only advantage of democracy is that if the people vote in a bad ruler, they have only themselves to blame.

[Olog-hai]

Neither evil is lesser. The only lesser evil was Mubarak.

[iontheball]

Spot on. Andy McCarthy knows the Islamic butchers better than most. The sad reality is that Egypt now realizes that freedom and Islam are incompatible. The only way any individual freedom can exist in a country occupied by Muslims is to beat the radical Islamist element into submission. They respect nothing but brut force and there is no way they will peacefully co-exist without constantly being forced into submisson.

[Don Corleone]

Objective....Keep the Suez Canal OPEN or watch the entire world dive into recession or depression and possible war. If that oil route is cut off once again the results world wide will be devastating. One, repeat one ship sunk at the right place in the canal is all it will take...and the bad guys know it.

[longfellow]

It’s right there in his book. PG. 162. He said he was going to side with the muzzies, you know, his brothers.