For Western governments, events in Egypt are a decidedly mixed blessing. For the United States in particular, which has long had close ties to the most senior Egyptian leadership, the military's heightened role means that familiar faces will be making the important decisions. Yet the White House has made clear publicly and privately that it viewed changes in Egypt as harbingers of an inescapable change sweeping the Middle East. Whereas some predicted as recently as Thursday that Egypt was moving forward, with the rise of the Military Command Council, Egypt seems to have reverted to 1952.On the other hand, who knows? Maybe Alterman has it exactly wrong.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Military Rule?
I continue to say, as I've been saying for weeks, that I don't know what's going to happen in Egypt, just like no-one else knows. Having said that, Jon Alterman's reading of the situation makes sense to me, and I'm told he's regarded as a knowledgeable fellow:
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2 comments:
If I was Egyptian, I'd say it's better to be ruled by the military than by the secret police.
Bruce
The military is a lesser evil than the Islamists. Egypt is waiting for its modernizer, its Kemal Ataturk. The status quo is dead.
A democratic culture takes time to be created. It cannot be done overnight. Egypt's future is still an open question mark. The country now needs stability as it it figures out how to create the culture and institutions necessary for democracy to take root.
We should encourage and support a gradual transition to a true democracy. We should not lend our support to an Islamist takeover in Egypt.
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