Free Republic

With the Egyptian military killing Muslim Brotherhood in the streets and Muslim Brotherhood members burning down churches and parading nuns through those same streets, President Barack Obama took to the microphone from a golf course in Martha's Vineyard to clarify America's perspective. Here were his inspiring words: "America cannot determine the future of Egypt. That's a task for the Egyptian people. We don't take sides with any particular party or political figure. I know it's tempting inside of Egypt to blame the United States or the West or some other outside actor for what's gone wrong." There is a reason...

As administration officials mull a response to the turmoil in Egypt, conservative foreign policy experts and commentators remain divided over the question of U.S. aid and how to deal with the military following its takeover and the recent bloodshed. Those who favor continuing aid cite the need to protect key U.S. regional interests, topped by a secure Suez Canal and the Egypt-Israel peace treaty—interests more likely to be safeguarded by the Egyptian military than the Muslim Brotherhood administration it overthrew on July 3. …

There’s some soul searching going on in the Obama administration as it ponders how they got sidelined in Egypt as the situation there got out of control in a spiral of violence. As the New York Times details in a post-mortem of U.S. policy, the administration went all out to persuade the military that had overthrown the Muslim Brotherhood to compromise and allow the Islamists to rejoin the government. Among other efforts to cajole them or to threaten aid cutoffs, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel made 17 often-lengthy phone calls to Egyptian General Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi trying to get him to...

Abu Hafs al Maqdisi, the leader of the Gaza-based Jaish al Ummah (Army of the Nation), today called on Egyptians to wage "jihad" against Egyptian army commander General Abdul Fattah el Sisi. Al Maqdisi, who was released from a Hamas prison in December, also called on Egyptians to overthrow "the tyrant" (el Sisi) and establish an Islamic state. In addition, al Maqdisi said he hoped that one of el Sisi's bodyguards would kill him. Al Maqdisi further stated, according to press reports, that although Jaish al Ummah does not currently coordinate with any Salafist groups in Egypt, it is...

When Obama went down to Cairo in the spring of ’09, his speech, titled “A New Beginning,” was little more than a thinly disguised call for regime change. It wasn’t so much the words that mattered as the message behind them that the Mubarak government no longer enjoyed backing from Washington, D.C. The alliance between Egyptian liberals and Islamists that overthrew Mubarak, in a coup mediated by the military, was cheered as an expression of popular will. What it actually was, was the whistling sound of air escaping into a post-American power vacuum. Obama’s call for regional regime change led...

In the irony of ironies, the first democratically elected president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown on July 3 by the Egyptian military, ostensibly to save Egypt's fledgling "democracy." Doubtlessly, Morsi's organization, the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin), was in the process of dismantling any vestiges of democracy and installing an Islamic dictatorship. Yet the intervention of Egypt's military has produced a situation in which the Ikhwan claim to be the victims of a coup. Simultaneously, the disparate -- and desperate -- secular opposition have aligned themselves with the very military that only two years ago they...

For purposes of withholding funding, it should not be so characterized.There have been many Coups d'état and other more or less related events have been given that label. Generally, coups have involved the military (1) taking over and (2) then running a country (3) indefinitely. Here's a definition from Wikipedia: A coup d'état (/ˌkuːdeɪˈtɑː/; plural: coups d'état), also known as a coup, a putsch, or an overthrow, is the sudden deposition of a government,[1][2][3][4] usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to depose the extant government and replace it with another body, civil or military. A coup d'état is considered successful when the usurpers establish their dominance....

Exclusive: US bankrolled anti-Morsi activists Documents reveal US money trail to Egyptian groups that pressed for president's removal. Al Jazeera 10 July 2013 President Barack Obama recently stated the United States was not taking sides as Egypt's crisis came to a head with the military overthrow of the democratically elected president. But a review of dozens of US federal government documents shows Washington has quietly funded senior Egyptian opposition figures who called for toppling of the country's now-deposed president Mohamed Morsi. Activists bankrolled by the programme include an exiled Egyptian police officer who plotted the violent overthrow of the Morsi...

In a dazzling display of monetary muscle, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates poured $8 billion in a single day into the coffers of Egypt’s army rulers in cash, grants, loans without interest and gifts of gas, a dizzying life-saving infusion into its tottering economy. Forking out sums on this scale in a single day – or even month - is beyond the capacity of almost every world power – even the US and Russia - in this age of economic distress. The Arab oil colossuses managed to dwarf Iran’s pretensions to the standing of regional power. Tuesday, July...

"Islamic Awakening" was the Iranian establishment's term of choice for the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa that began in late 2010. Tehran described the unrest as a sign of the defeat of U.S. influence and of people's desire to embrace Islam. Now, the crisis in Egypt has posed a fresh challenge for Iran, sending it scrambling to explain how Egypt's "Islamic Awakening" went wrong. Tehran has so far said little about the crisis, with the Foreign Ministry calling simply for the Egyptian people's "legitimate demands" to be fulfilled and warning of "foreign and enemy opportunism." Iran’s...

It seems as though everyone has an opinion on what the Egyptians should do with their country and government. Iran wants the Muslim Brotherhood restored to power; Russia is worried about civil war; most of the West wants new elections and an end to military rule. The US is currently debating on whether to call the coup a coup at all, as that designation would force a suspension of American aid to the Egyptian military. The Obama administration demanded the restoration of “a democratically elected civilian government” rather than “the democratically elected civilian government,” a nuance that was not lost...

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday criticized the Egyptian military’s toppling of the nation’s Islamist president, calling the move improper in its first official reaction. “We do not consider proper the intervention by military forces in politics to replace a democratically elected administration,” said ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi, according to the official news agency IRNA. Egypt’s military ousted Mohammed Morsi Wednesday after four days of mass protests against him. …

CAIRO — As President Mohamed Morsi huddled in his guard’s quarters during his last hours as Egypt’s first elected leader, he received a call from an Arab foreign minister with a final offer to end a standoff with the country’s top generals, senior advisers with the president said. The foreign minister said he was acting as an emissary of Washington, the advisers said, and he asked if Mr. Morsi would accept the appointment of a new prime minister and cabinet, one that would take over all legislative powers and replace his chosen provincial governors....

World leaders weigh in after Egypt's army commander announces that president had been removed The Egyptian army's suspension of the constitution and removal of President Mohamed Morsi has drawn mixed responses from world leaders: European Union The EU has called for a rapid return to democracy in Egypt. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said: "I urge all sides to rapidly return to the democratic process, including the holding of free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections and the approval of a constitution, to be done in a fully inclusive manner, so as to permit the country to resume and...

Since 1952, Egypt's identity has been in a tug of war between Islamists and a secular military state. CAIRO — The passions fueling Egypt's political turbulence arose directly from the "Arab Spring" of 2011, but they have deeper roots in a decades-long struggle over the nation's identity between two authoritarian forces — Islamists and a secular military state. Egypt won its independence from Britain after a 1952 revolution by army officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. From the start, the military was set against the Muslim Brotherhood, a growing and at times violent underground Islamist movement. Strong in the...

Kerry and Co. have been insisting that we have to keep plowing money into Morsi’s Brotherhood regime because it’s in America’s national security interests. Those claims never held much water and they hold even less water now that unnamed Obama officials are warning the military that if it takes power, it will face a loss of that same military aid. U.S. officials said Washington has suggested to Morsi that he call early elections, though they underlined they were demanding specific steps — and they said they had underlined to Egypt’s military that a coup would have consequences for U.S. aid....

The State Department is denying reports that the U.S. is calling on Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to schedule early elections. "The reports that we have been urging early elections are inaccurate," State spokesman Jen Psake said at her briefing on Tuesday. She said the U.S. has called for Egypt to allow protests and to respect democracy, both publicly and in private, but that the U.S. had not called for early elections, The Hill reported. Psaki's statement follows a report by CNN that the U.S. had called on Morsi to hold early elections. "We are saying to him, 'Figure out a...

The demonstrations that began Sunday in Cairo, Egypt against the Muslim Brotherhood government of President Mohamed Morsi have attracted "millions" of supporters and many counter-demonstrators as well, making the protest the largest political event in the history of the world, according to the BBC. The protests in Tahrir Square and throughout Egypt exceed those that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 in the key event of the Arab Spring. Two years later, after constitutional reforms and elections that saw Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood move to aggrandize their power, the public backlash is immense.

[snip] Egyptian Chief of Staff Sedki Sobhi announced the military would prevent the regime from violently dispersing the protesters. "The Egyptian army will be in the streets" if there are millions of people to protect, he was quoted as saying. Egypt’s military has warned the Muslim Brotherhood not to allow armed security personnel to get involved in the demonstrations or try to disperse them, the source said, because "the army will violently intervene." [/snip]

Democracies sometimes reject freedom. It's MY constitution.Egypt has a new new democratically elected dictator and Venezuela still has her old one. Since they were elected by majorities of the voters they must be good democratic rulers who give the majority what they want. Suppose the majority want to have blasphemers' heads removed? Suppose the majority want to have money taken from the rich because they have been told that will help the poor? Giving the majority what they want is democratic and an effective way to get elected again. Individual freedom? Freedom is unnecessary in some democracies and may even...