I must admit, I am not happy when I have to write about something like this, but it does make me very thankful to be living in the United States of America. Even with the differences between the left and the right, the peaceful transition of power is the order of the day. In other parts of the world, including Egypt, not so much. Most of today’s news is focused on Cairo, Egypt, where the protests against President Hosni Mubarak are turning more and more violent. Despite the calls for his resignation, he has stubbornly said he will serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in September. This is not endearing him to the hearts of the protesters who are calling for his immediate resignation, but it has given his supporters new found hope. As those two groups of people met in Cairo’s Tahrir Square today, the scene was not pleasant. Here is a description of what followed, from Fox News.
Thousands of supporters and opponents of President Hosni Mubarak battled in Cairo’s main square Wednesday, raining stones and bottles down on each other as gunshots rang in the air. In scenes of uncontrolled violence, government backers galloped in on horses and camels, only to be dragged to the ground by their rivals and beaten bloody.
The two sides faced off at a front line next to the famed Egyptian Museum at the edge of central Tahrir Square, where they crouched behind abandoned trucks, hurling chunks of concrete and bottles at each other. Government supporters waved machetes, and entire rooftoops of several nearby buildings were covered with their fighters, who hurled rocks, bricks and firebombs on the crowd below and tearing up satellite dishes to use as shields.
Bloodied anti-government protesters were taken to makeshift clinics in mosques and alleyways, and some pleaded for protection from soldiers stationed at the square, who refused. Though they occasionally fired warning shots in the air, the soldiers did nothing to stop the fighting.
I was hoping Egypt would not descend into chaos, for one very simple reason. The United States and Israel needs a stable Egypt, but no more so than does the citizens of the country themselves. If chaos descends, a vacuum of power will likely be the result, into which one of the more violent Islamic groups may insert itself. While the citizens of Egypt may not be ready for full-blown democracy, I somehow do not believe they would be better off with an Islamic state. The long and short of it all may be that the Egyptian people may be about to get the short end of the stick and that can not be a good thing.
Obama has made a Carteresque mistake in opening talks with the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the group that tried to assassinate President Nasser in the 1950s and has said there will be war with Israel.
The events in Tunes, Egypt and whatever comes next in the middle-East have one relevant thing in common – relevant to us as Americans – that the United States can only mold them in the concept of the Bush Doctrine – Freedom, Democracy, and constitutional order – as Bush applied and succeeded in Iraq, against all the forces of the Democratic Party and the Obama administration. In short, “Bush has been proven right sooner rather than later” as I discussed in my piece of today.
This is a force for good – notice that there have been no American flag burnings through out these developments.
It’s not only chaos; it is disorganized chaos. I don’t see how it can end well. I hope I’m wrong.