Paul R. Pillar is apparently
worried that things will turn out badly in Egypt . He wrote “Trouble Brewing in
Egypt ”
to elaborate on his view; and had the article published on April 26, 2016 in
The National Interest.
By the time you're done reading
the article, you wonder if he is really worried, or if he is contributing to
the noise that's generated about Egypt these days so as to promote his own
agenda – whatever it may be. You start developing that suspicion the moment
that you encounter this passage: “The most worrisome consequence of the
regime's harsh policy has been the boost it gives to extremism, including
violent extremism in the form of international terrorism.” Aha! It's that thing
again. They all seem to have caught the disease.
As a former official of the
intelligence apparatus, Pillar knows better than anyone that the ideas
contained in that passage are lies. They exist only because they were the most
effective tool ever devised by the Judeo-Israeli propaganda machine to
mesmerize the American political system; to control it, mobilize the nation and
make it serve Israel, always Israel and no one but Israel.
Pillar knows, as do all those in
the intelligence business, that the one thing which can provoke Arab anger, is
interference in their country's affairs by a foreign power. When the younger
crowd senses that something like this is happening, it turns against the
foreigners; also turns against the rulers for allowing it to happen. And if the
youngsters sense that the rulers are colluding with the foreign powers for
whatever reason, they go out of control and turn things ugly for the leaders.
That is how and why the Muslim
Brotherhood was created in Egypt
in 1928; it is the reason why Ayman al-Zawahiri was involved in the
assassination of Anwar Sadat, why he joined UBL's al-Qaeda, why UBL plotted the
attack on America , why
Hezbollah was created in Lebanon ,
and why Western-born youngsters turn to terrorist activities in Europe and America . And
the irony – the very sad and very bitter irony – that seems to have escaped
Paul Pillar is that terrorism is now exported not from the Middle East to
Europe or America , but from
Europe and America to the Middle East . Figure that out, Paul!
In the same way that all those
places are attacked by thrill-seeking youngsters from around the globe for
reasons that have nothing to do with the governance of a country, Egypt is being attacked in the Sinai ... a
phenomenon that started long ago when the Peninsula was briefly occupied by Israel . The
mischief-makers who now come from Europe, America
and Asia may have changed their appearance,
but that's the nature of terrorism which keeps mutating as it keeps
metastasizing. And maybe – just maybe – there is something wrong with the kind
of governance that is practiced in Europe, America
and Asia . But that's a discussion for another
time.
Having gone on for several
paragraphs in an attempt to mount a heroic but futile attempt to establish a
link between the absolutely minimal terrorist activities that take place in the
Sinai Peninsula at the hands of foreign fighters – to the policies by which the
Egyptian mainland is governed, Paul Pillar now turns his attention to the
relationship that exists between the United States of America and Sisi’s Egypt.
He guesses that Sisi's regime
“probably” hopes to quell violent groups the way that Mubarak did more than two
decades ago. No, says Pillar, that performance will not do well because Sisi is
worse than Mubarak. And he warns that the consequence of Sisi's actions in
combating terrorism will be to export that terrorism. To strengthen his
argument, Pillar gives the example of al-Zawahiri who left Egypt and
joined al-Qaeda. However, instead of strengthening his argument, Pillar
demolished it having forgotten that when Zawahiri left Egypt , Sisi was
a toddler and not yet President of Egypt.
Unaware of what he just did, and
eager to strengthen his argument even more, the author mentions an event that
has the effect of burying the already demolished argument. Look at this: “Most
recently there have been indications of broader and active even nonviolent,
opposition to the Sisi regime. Cairo
saw the largest protest demonstration in at least two years”.