This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
So we have come full circle. Ousted President Mubarak is now a free man. Sort of. Here’s how the New York Times announced it:
The judicial authorities in Egypt have ordered the release of former President Hosni Mubarak, who has been detained on a variety of charges since his ouster in 2011, according to state media and security officials on Monday. It remained possible, however, that the authorities would find other ways to keep him in detention.
The development threatened to inject a volatile new element into the standoff between the country’s military and the Islamist supporters of the deposed President Mohamed Morsi as Egypt entered the sixth day of a state of emergency following a bloody crackdown by the military in which hundreds of people have been killed.
It was unclear how Egyptians — particularly those who have welcomed the military action against Mr. Morsi — would respond to the release of a despised autocrat whose downfall united Mr. Mubarak’s secular and Islamist foes. News of the legal maneuvers came at a time of sustained bloodletting.
Amazing how political fortunes change when the power behind the throne sees daylight to extend its power indefinitely. Egypt’s military is baiting the opposition – as it murders them. Last week’s death toll is well over 800. Summary execution seems to be the order of the day.
Whether Egypt’s military can win the day – or in President Obama’s jargon, prepare the change that will take generations – is in doubt. The possibility of democracy has receded. It has all but disappeared. The question now is who will be left standing.
When we get to the last person standing the challenge is to survive. In a war of survival every ethical code is suspended – on all sides. Right now Egypt’s situation is worse than civil war where sides are clearly delineated. On the streets no one knows which side the other is on. Chaos is the result.
Meanwhile the European Union is fulminating to no avail. The Obama administration is second guessing its second guess. Egypt’s leaders are arguing their independence from outside interference as they become more and more dependent on the most despotic regional powers, including Israel.
Light at the end of the tunnel? Not now. Not for a long time.
Events in Egypt raise a disturbing question about democracy everywhere. Is the sovereign people allowed first to take a vote with a certain effect, like electing a President or parliament for a term of years, and then say ‘That’s not what we meant at all’? If so, every decision is at best provisional. If not, the will of the people is enacted fully only at elections and not between them.
The headline, professor, is a lie invented by you.
Why would you do this? Political titillation for the ignorant has become your niche, it seems. You know they pay more at Fox than they do at Mondoweiss – you’d fit right in with them now with your unethical practices.
There are many charges against Mubarak still pending and his lawyer stupidly stated that he “could” be released within 48 hours, after the end of the first trial which took place today. Never gonna happen – Mubarak will die in jail. But of course amateurs will pick up the lawyer’s kookoo statement and milk its propaganda to support their twisted agenda or their paranoiac conspiracy.
Marc Ellis, in case you didn’t know, the Egyptian people have been a nation of people for over 12 thousand years, and in all them years, they have never had a single civil war. It’s not in their organic MO or history. So your fantasy of an Egyptian civil war is simply this: a sadistic ignoramus fantasy. Besides, who’s gonna be fighting who and how many of them are there? A question I’m sure you haven’t even contemplated let alone fact or stat-checked.
Really hope you eat much crow in the next few days for calling it wrong again in Egypt.
Its not a civil war when a foreign trained and funded military deposes the elected government , shuts down or kills media opposition, and kills and outlaws its domestic opposition, its merely a foreign colonial occupation . In the American Revolution we also had economic elites siding with the foreign occupation and repression; post revolution British loyalists had their illegal wealth seized.
It is not clear exactly who is directing the counter revolutionary forces allied with the Foreign funded military, but certainly the counter revolutionaries are anti Islamist, anti armed struggle, and pro Islamic quietism, at least in their opposition to the MB and Hamas:
“The in the statement, the Tamarod youth movement calls Hamas a “gang,” slamming it as morally and financially corrupt – blaming the Islamist movement for the imposition of Islamic law on many aspects of Gazan life, corruption, killing innocent people, demolishing mosques, and oppressing the population of Gaza in the name of religion. ”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/171073#.UhJbvD-C6po
Note that Tamarod is closely echoing Islamaphobic memes in the USA, eg shariah, terrorism, moral oppression. Highly unlikely this is indeed am Egyptian organic movement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/world/middleeast/leaving-military-aid-intact-us-takes-steps-to-halt-economic-help-to-egypt.html?ref=middleeast&_r=0
”The Obama administration has taken preliminary steps to withhold financial aid to the Egyptian government, officials said on Sunday, though it is curtailing economic assistance, not the much larger military aid on which Egypt’s generals depend.
The State Department has put a hold on financing for economic programs that directly involve the Egyptian government, administration officials said, out of a concern that the military-led government might have violated Congressional rules prohibiting aid to countries where there has been a coup. ”>>>>
Doesnt make much sense to curtail economic but not military aid if what you’re promoting is some knd of ‘domestic’ stability does it?
The rhetoric coming out of the Salvation Front, among others in the pro-coup Provisional Government, is horrifying. Clearly these “liberals” are absolutely barking, working themselves up into a rage appropriate to public executions or possible concentration camps. There is also a fair amount of lying going on, along with media suppression and 24/7 media demonizing of the MB. Most interesting is the charge, rather common now among pro-coup Egyptians, that the West (especially its journalism) is secretly in league with the Muslim Brothers. Equally interesting is the pro-coup’s demand for the ouster of AJ.
Most Islamophobes in the USA believe that all US Muslim organizations are simply fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood. If the Egyptian MB is in fact crushed, who or what will the American anti-Muslim bigots blame in their campaign against American Islam?
Irony aside, its very hard not to conclude that the Arab Spring is now over, not just because of Black Wednesday but also because of the incredible lying, the psychotic propaganda campaign, and outright hysterical denial that the interim government has made, or ever could make, any mistakes.
The two power centers were the MB and the military. Their goals were incompatible, but they balanced each other out. There is now nothing to stop the military for seizing power in the form of a military dictatorship, especially since Saudi money is about to replace US dollars. If you doubt that, just think ahead a bit to the “next elections.” Does anyone seriously think that they’ll allow anyone from the MB to run? And if they don’t, how can anybody claim that the election is representative?
That being the case, the military will probably decide not to bother about elections at all. Then when the “liberals” complain, the military can say, “Well, we’re very sorry, but you see if we have elections the MB will only use that as an excuse to win power back. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”