Emergency in Egypt
Remember that one of the big objections to Mubarak’s rule was the fact that, during his entire time as president—which began right after the 1981 assassination of his predecessor Sadat and ended almost two years ago (almost exactly two years ago)—he never lifted the emergency rule that was imposed in the wake of that violence?
Well, no wonder this is causing a commotion.
It’s all sadly predictable.
you know nothing about the middle east; its culture, history or politics. kindly shut your trap and go back to ranting about how obama is satan or stalin or african or whatever. the only thing predictable here is the vapidity of your “commentary.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Marwan,
Don’t you belong in the netflix world of season 3 (or was it 4) of 24 unleashing a nuclear missile on LA? Be careful, the Jack Bauer of your imagination is lurking under your bed.
Marwan could take lessons from Zachriel over at Maggie’s Farm. Not likely to do that, I suspect.
“.. over at Maggie’s Farm..”
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm any more or scrub the floor.
More chaos in Egypt is favorable for defeat of islamists. Brotherhood has numbers, but mostly in rural areas, while its opponents prevail in big cities. During big turmols only 2% of population tend to decide the outcome, if they concentrate in capitals and have passion to win.
If there’s a silver lining here it is that the fact Morsi needed to declare a state of emergency proves he is not at all secure.
Sergey – I think you may be underestimating the Brotherhood. While most of their supporters live in rural areas, their core supporters (the folks who organize the riots) are middle class and urban. Its like a tribe for people who have outgrown tribes.
sergey and Baltimoron: chaos and unrest are typically used by regimes in order to declare states of emergency and tighten their hold as well as come down harder on their enemies.
At some point their ability to come down harder is eroded and mass disobedience became so rampant that state rule cease to exist. I have seen it at Moscow streets 20 years ago. No government can operate keeping 1 policeman for every citizen, it needs 99% obedient population so the police could deal with remaining 1%. In my impression, Egypt society rapidly turns absolutely ungovernable, so a bloody civil war is imminent.
neo-neocon,
Of course Morsi is using this as a power grab. No one is disagreeing with you there. But take it a step further and ask yourself why he feels a power grab is necessary. What does it say about him and his relationship with the Egyptian people?
He wouldn’t be doing this if he didn’t think the opposition has the strength to kick him out (that’s a good thing). And as sergey pointed out, a police state is inherently unstable. They fall apart very quickly if the people lose their fear of the police.