Imagine you are in your house and suddenly, you hear noise
and loud human voices outside. You and your family go out to see what is
happening, and discover that a part of the neighbor's house is in flames, an
occurrence caused by a car that caught fire in the street nearby. Your own
house has been affected but to a much lesser extent.
You notice that the neighbors are wrangling loudly as to the
best way to handle the situation without doing anything. In the meantime, you
and your family quickly decide who will get the buckets of water, who will get
the garden hose and who will call the fire department. But while you're doing
this, the do-nothing neighbors scream at you that you're wasting time wrangling
among yourselves instead of doing something to put out the fire. You shake your
head in dismay, having just realized that your neighbors are a family of bozos.
Well, my friend, this is the closest analogy that would
describe what comes to mind when American pundits who stand at one extreme of
the political spectrum or the other, ignore their own house that's ablaze, and
lecture to others – the Egyptians, for example – as to the way they ought to
handle their own little fires. This is what the editors of the Wall Street
Journal have done once again with the piece they published on November 30, 2013
under the title: “Egypt's Authoritarian Slide” and the subtitle: “The generals
crack down on the secular liberal opposition.”
First, they say that the Egyptian authorities arrested one
of the leaders of the uprising who, along with millions of Egyptians, forced
out Mubarak nearly three years ago. This time, however, they acknowledge that
he did not have those millions behind him because: “Many Egyptians are happy to
settle for the restoration of some kind of order after nearly three years of
chaos.”
So what's the problem? What are these editors bitching
about? Well, they admit there is nothing tangible except for a feeling that
they have. It's not something they can put their finger on; it's what things
look like. Look like, they say? Yes, look like. Here it is in their own words:
“The military looks like determined to ensure no repeat of the January 2011
upheavals that brought free elections and the Islamists to power in the first
place.”
Does that mean the military fears the Islamists might return
to power? Oh no, not that, they say; and they have a good reason not to believe
so because: “The head of the Egyptian military remains the most popular figure
in Egypt ,
and he can probably win if he runs for the presidency in elections due next
year.” What then? Nothing. Just that; a feeling. Are you sure it's just a
feeling? No further comment. Okay.
But you want to know: What does that feeling do to them? It
gets them to speculate as to what the future holds. In fact, they are so
certain of their speculation, they take it as prophecy. Here is how they see
the scenario play itself out: Various political parties will start to press for
a greater say in how Egypt
is run. The Islamist are badly wounded, but not out. As memories fade, support
for the Brotherhood will rise … One byproduct is terrorism.
Did they imagine all that alone based on a feeling? Well,
not really. What they did is what they always do which is to find a restless
local who went to live in America ,
and they took his advice. It's like Russian pundits building a case based on
what Ed Snoden tells them ... but don't tell this to anyone; it can get
embarrassing.
Knowing how to live at the expense of suckers, the restless
Egyptian knew exactly what they wanted to hear, and that's what he told them.
He said the military is building on pillars that are xenophobic
ultranationalism, anti-Americanism and conspiracy theories about Fifth
Columnists. And he predicted that this will again make Egypt prime
recruiting ground for al Qaeda. Of course, what these Egyptians will do even
before they are born is tell their parents to go breed them in Pakistan and Chechnya
so that when they grow up, they will go blow up things in London
and Boston –
and no one will know they are Egyptian.