We hear the right-wing talk shows crying their fear of The Muslim Brotherhood. It's almost as if they have a mantra, "The Brotherhood is coming, the Brotherhood is coming, the Brotherhood is coming ..."
What these uninformed and biased nincompoops
fail to realize is that this was a people's revolution, led by young and old
alike -- no matter how much the Twitter people and others want to make it only a
"young people's revolution" with no real direction. They want to do this because
it is more fashionable for our media hounds; but it is evident that those who
were in Tahrir Square were people of all ages, socio-economic groups and styles.
It was not dominated by The Muslim Brotherhood, and the Egyptian people
and the military have made it clear the Muslim Brotherhood will not be a major
player in Egypt's future, but it may be a part of it.
I say this for two reasons:
1. The
role of the military in Egypt and its long allegiance to the memory and pattern
set forth by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
General Naguib and Nasser overthrew, with
the help of the military and many civilians, the late King Farouk -- who was a
favorite of the British and the Western powers, including America. But shortly after taking power, the military, under Nasser, moved to set
up a parliamentary system, a constitution and a role for civilians to run the
government. They also allowed a free press and open discussions of national
policies, without the rancor we see in present day
America.
Thus, it is not for us to brag
about our fabled failing "democracy," because the Egyptians had
their own flourishing democracy before Sadat and Mubarak wrecked it with their
greed -- a democracy brought to them by the Egyptian Army under Gamal Abdel
Nasser, who became president.
Lest one think Nasser was a dictator, let it
be known that he helped right the economy, took the Suez Canal for Egypt and
then he was betrayed by President Lyndon Johnson, who promised that if Nasser
stood down his air force and military, he would guarantee that Israel would not
attack. But as we all know, Israel did attack and destroyed the Egyptian
military. Egypt lost thousands of its military because of Johnson's duplicity, or
of Israel's lie to America. America made no apologies. President
Nasser then took the blame and offered his resignation as president, but
the people would not hear of it and demanded he stay in
office.
Today, this tradition of Nasser is alive and
well in Egypt, and that is why we should not listen to the hue and cry of the
right wing in America who are already telling the Egyptians who they should and
should not allow into government conferences. This shows the disdain some of
our ignorant American politicians and political hacks have for Egypt and its
great and long civilization. These are the same ignorant people
who allow their own people to follow and praise an idiot like Sarah
Palin and feature her on TV -- then have the nerve to think they can tell
the Egyptian people what they should do!
Fox and the rest of the talking heads on TV
should go study Egyptian history, especially of the Nasser era to see
what the real heritage of this revolution is -- not an American
revolutionary root, but an Egyptian one!
The Egyptian military will run things until
a stable situation is achieved, until a civilian authority is put into place,
with a democratic vote for parliament and other offices. In the
meantime, I hope the US, Israel, Iran and others will keep their dark OP hands
out of Egypt, but I fear they will be meddling and, while rhetorically calling
for "democracy," will be trying to subvert it.
My hope is that the Egyptian people will
stand strong against outside interference and, if and when they come across the
presence of outsiders in their country, will quickly vanquish them, so that
they may once again lead the Arab and Muslim worlds, as they did in the time of
Gamal Abdel Nasser.
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