Egypt...going...going...gone.

[mcurrier]

All of this from just todays reports. They're crumbling pretty fast.

Egypt’s high court nullifies parliamentary elections; military may take over lawmaking

http://www.washingto...2GcV_story.html

Egypt's highest court declares parliament invalid

http://news.blogs.cn...to-be-dissolved

Egypt decree grants arrest powers to military

http://www.aljazeera...6733866879.html

------------------

some recent political history on the U.S. and Egypt -

Obama Funds The Egyptian Government - $1.5 Billion to Muslim Brotherhood-controlled government

http://www.nationalr...rew-c-mccarthy#

and from January 2011 (18 months ago!)

Obama will go down in history as the president who lost Egypt

http://www.haaretz.c...-egypt-1.340057

"Jimmy Carter will go down in American history as "the president who lost Iran," which during his term went from being a major strategic ally of the United States to being the revolutionary Islamic Republic. Barack Obama will be remembered as the president who "lost" Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt, and during whose tenure America's alliances in the Middle East crumbled.

The superficial circumstances are similar. In both cases, a United States in financial crisis and after failed wars loses global influence under a leftist president whose good intentions are interpreted abroad as expressions of weakness. The results are reflected in the fall of regimes that were dependent on their relationship with Washington for survival, or in a change in their orientation, as with Ankara."

[TMF]

Sh!tsnacks, this is gonna be bad stuff in a couple of years.

[daddyo]

And they gave GWB such grief about American isolationism...

[mcurrier]

Biden Praises Arab Spring on Same Day Egypt Dissolves Its Parliament

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/biden-praises-arab-spring-same-day-egypt-dissolves-its-parliament

[Ramjo]

History repeating itself again?

[RobertNashville]

I have some friends in Egypt who are Christians - they had a difficult life before the "Arab Spring"; I haven't been able to contact them for over a year now and don't even know if they are alive...I'm hoping that they may have been able to escape Egypt for a more stable place but it's likely I'll never know; at least not in this life.

[Caster]

Oh Blessed Israel....Start build ya'll some more walls down south my friends. You're gonna need it!

[turkeydad]

Your right caster....and weve been providing egypt the good stuff in recent years...abrams tanks...f16s...etc

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Well I'm an isolationist. Don't send em money and don't screw with em. If they screw with us, take out ten to one, then immediately come home. No middle east marshall plan, no nation building. If they screw with us again, then take out ten to one again and come back home again. Eventually they will figger it out.

From an isolationist view, we were sending em money and interfering before Obama, and after Obama we are still sending em money and interfering, so ain't claiming it ain't changed, but what exactly has SIGNIFICANTLY changed? It sucked before and it still sucks! Same old same old.

OK, for decades up to a year ago, the Military was in charge of Egypt. Then we paid a bunch of money kicking out the old figurehead and the brotherhood takes over. Now we hear the brotherhood-controlled parliament has been dissolved and the Military is in charge. Other than the USA yet again giving away my tax dollars to ferriners, and the USA helping one set of ferriners kill off their fellow countrymen, what exactly has changed?

[robin48]

Nothing has changed and won't.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2

[TMF]

Oh Blessed Israel....Start build ya'll some more walls down south my friends. You're gonna need it!

This is the way I see it going in 5-10 years. I don't think we'll be able to stay out of it this time. Bad, bad stuff. How things go in Syria will probably give us an idea of what to expect.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I doubt it will be 5-10 years. Things are moving too fast over there.

[TMF]

I doubt it will be 5-10 years. Things are moving too fast over there.

Egypt will need some time to get their military back to its old levels of organization and will need to indoctrinate their armed forces with whatever extremist ideology that will be developed by those few that will be running the show. Plus they'll have to hold tight until they can rack up some allies in the region. Kinda like what happened before only without Jordan playing this time; unless Obama manages to alienate King Abdullah, which would be the most impressive feat to date, but even Obama couldn't screw that up.

[Caster]

Look for them get support from the other festering holes that Africa has to offer too.

[TMF]

Look for them get support from the other festering holes that Africa has to offer too.

That's what I was thinking. There is some concern about opening doors for those JV terrorist groups to move on into the protected borders of Egypt to prevent targeting. These groups are pretty small potatoes, but it'll be a sign of things to come and things will absolutely get worse. I look at my kid and hope he doesn't have to go over there someday too.

[Caster]

Great, Like we didn't get enough of Mogadishu 20 years ago.

[TMF]

Great, Like we didn't get enough of Mogadishu 20 years ago.

Yep, and the problem is we can't stay out of it. As awful as genocide, war crimes and all that is, we shouldn't be in the business of helping people that aren't willing to help themselves. If the people of Somalia needed help so bad we should have showed up on their shores with a shipload of AKs and RPGs with folks to show them how to use them against Aidid and other oppressive warlords; not 20,000 Marines playing referee.

When this thing gets out of hand and starts to really spill into Ethiopia what then? We all know "what", but it shouldn't be that way.

[Caster]

Wasting our men playing "Globo-cop" will likely be what sets us up for getting our arses stomped by an enemy we should be paying more attention to.

Edited June 15, 2012 by Caster

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Caster and TMF, maybe I'm out of touch not seeing it correctly. Maybe the Egypt military will get increasingly radical. I'm open to arguments and data leading to that conclusion.

Egypt has been basically a military fascist state for how long? I don't study up on that region, but regardless whether they had elections and token leaders, hasn't the military basically been in charge since at least the 1950's?

The military leadership and most ossifers do lots better than the man-on-the-street and most likely even privates and corporals have a better life than the man on the street. They get lots of goodies from USA and others as bribes for their good behavior. All they have to do is play soldier and live high on the hog from foreign aid. Last times they fought israel they got their butts handed to em on a platter. Getting all shot up and killed ain't nearly as good as living the life of riley and strutting around like martinets. And they know dang well that Israel has hundreds of nukes and Egypt has zero nukes, and if push comes to shove it won't be much fun for martinets to strut around a green-glass Egypt.

Them fellers were suppressing the Brotherhood for decades before the Egyptian Spring. Now that the military is taking over again, what makes you think they ain't gonna go back to harassing the Brotherhood? If the brotherhood gets its way it would screw up the military's gravy train.

Edited June 16, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Since the "Arab Spring", that Obama touted as good for the region, the only thing that has happened, as far as I can see, is the

Muslim Brotherhood has batted a thousand at taking over every country it has entered. Israel is now surrounded. When Israel

kicked them back, the ideology was probably different in most of the countries in the region; more moderate in some and radical

in others. now, it appears they are coalescing and preparing for causing a lot of havoc. The timliness is striking to me.

TMF, Obama could screw this up bad by keeping his alliances the way they are. Israel is now a ticking time bomb. I imagine they

are past the point of return, now.

[mcurrier]

On Eve of Vote, Egypt’s Military Extends Its Power

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/world/middleeast/blow-to-transition-as-court-dissolves-egypts-parliament.html

"military rulers moved to consolidate power Friday on the eve of the presidential runoff election, shutting down the Islamist-led Parliament, locking out lawmakers and seizing the sole right to issue laws even after a new head of state takes office."

[TMF]

Egypt has been basically a military fascist state for how long? I don't study up on that region, but regardless whether they had elections and token leaders, hasn't the military basically been in charge since at least the 1950's?

The difference is we used to have a handle on it to the point that we were able to serve our interests. I don't see it being that way anymore. That wouldn't be such an awful thing if it weren't for the radicalization that is occurring as the fundamentalists are taking advantage of the upheaval in the region. Kinda like how things went/are going in Pakistan. Real bad stuff so close to Israel and the up and coming terrorist organizations in East Africa.

Point is we have more to lose here than a "sorta" ally in the region. What is happening now is setting the stage for a situation that we won't be able to stay out of, and I would really like to stay out of it. Diplomacy and cash is how we shape the environment to prevent these impossible situations, but we can apply neither with a radical government.

Edited June 16, 2012 by TMF 18B

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks TMF. You may be correct that Egyptian military might become radicalized in less-sensible ways than old fashioned self-interested fascism.

Sometimes military dictatorships have persisted a long time then simply "withered away" back to a semblance of democracy, without excessive bloodshed. I'm not much a scholar and may be wrong, but that seemed to have happened with the Greek military junta-- After awhile it seemed the generals got tired of it, "this just isn't working out" and ceded power back to civilian elections. I think the same happened in a couple of South American nations but could be wrong.

Unfortunately when the majority of civilians are "crazy" the democracy doesn't do much to improve matters...

[mcurrier]

[mcurrier]

White House Congratulates Muslim Brotherhood For Winning Egypt’s Presidential Election, Calls It a “Milestoneâ€â€¦

http://cowboybyte.co...it-a-milestone/

Obama Praises Islamist Takeover

http://visiontoameri...amist-takeover/

Obama congratulates Muslim Brotherhood leader

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=1621000

White House congratulates Egypt's Morsi

http://www.politico....rsi-127117.html

Women need to be properly dressed now. Where are the National Organization for Woman and Hillary Clinton to decry this?!?!

Edited June 25, 2012 by mcurrier