Repetition is a double edge sword. When used by some people,
especially those who have an ax to grind, it can bore you to tears, which is
true in most cases. When used by professional comedians who know what they are
doing, it can make you laugh which is true in some of the cases.
Sometimes, however, you face an odd situation where you feel
like tears are about to flow down your cheeks but you're not sure if it's
because you're bored or because you find the situation hilarious. In fact, you
will feel you've been caught in a situation like this if you read the
Washington Post editorial that came under the title: “The U.S. must confront
the Egyptian military's push for authoritarian rule” and was published on
December 7, 2013.
The title tells you what the editorial is about, so let me
tell you how it ends before I even discuss it because this is how the effort of
reading it can be transformed from a boring heavy moment to a light one; maybe
even a funny one. Here is the passage that was heard or seen so many times
previously in the Washington Post and in other publications: “The right U.S. strategy would be to suspend cooperation
with the regime [in Egypt ]
until it adopts a genuine democratic path.”
What came to my mind upon reading that passage is a saying I
have not heard in more than fifty years. It is an Egyptian saying which I doubt
is known to any of the other Arab speaking societies – but I could be wrong. It
goes something like this: “Father,” said the kid, “I am no longer going to
sleep in the same room as you.” “Thank you my son,” came the response, “you
just relieved me of your nightly farts.” It is that the people of Egypt have been calling on America to get out of there; and now it is America that
wants to get out. Goodbye says America ;
good riddance says Egypt .
By now you are so tired of writers (editors, columnists,
fly-by-night pundits and what have you) misrepresenting what happens in Egypt – because
they don't know what is going on, or because they do not want to know – you
cease to follow the logic as intended by them. You continue to read what they
have created, however, in the hope that you may detect a subtle change in their
presentation; one that would indicate a transformation in their brain pattern.
Detecting something like this can fill you with a load of new insights, you
know.
And the editors of the Washington Post do not disappoint you
in this regard. Here is one change you will consider being good, bad or
indifferent depending on your disposition. Speaking of the relationship between
the Obama administration and Egypt ,
the editors of the Post write this: “It can accept that a key U.S. ally is ...” Did they call Egypt a key U.S. ally? Since when has it been
the case? They don't just say an ally, which would have astonished many people
only a few months ago; they say a KEY ally, which would have stunned even an
Egyptian ambassador to America .
It is difficult to see how this could have happened without a chemical upheaval
being unleashed inside that skull of theirs. But who or what did it?
As you continue to read the editorial, you feel tickled
enough to smile, chuckle and laugh … which you do not do because of what they
say, but because of what they ignore saying while they say what they say. Here
they are, editors of the Washington Post, premier publication in the capital
city of America ,
and they haven't a clue as to how their own country is run, or how it should be
run. And yet, they are absolutely certain about what is happening in Egypt , and what
will happen there tomorrow, next year, during the next generation and all the
generations after that.
Not only do these people claim to know what will happen,
they also claim they know what should be deleted from Egypt 's daily
life, and what should be inserted in its stead.