Dead men walking, with license to kill by Pepe Escobar

[Jefferson23]

February 4, 2011

So Pharaoh Mubarak had to prove once again he's a real superstar of the "war on terror". Old habits die hard. He's now unleashing terror against his own people.

It was just a matter of time before Mubarakism unleashed its thugs and goon squads to try to smash people power. In the absence of "chaos" in the streets - in contrast to the regime's "stability" - the manipulation of crude divide and rule techniques duly fabricated chaos; if, as opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei has coined, Mubarak is now a "dead man walking", what about his zombie army, straight out of The Return of the Living Deadad?

SNIP* A typical regime black ops to shift the narrative - and spook the West for good - would be to shoot dead a few protesters and blame it on the Muslim Brotherhood. It is alarming in itself that this "takeover by fanatic Islamists" plot is already being spun to death by US corporate media. The CNN website is now openly warning about "the risk of democracy in the Middle East". And Fox News sounds like Mubarakism propaganda, frantically spinning the risks of "instability".

SNIP* Very few in the US and Europe are connecting the dots that the rise of radical Islam in the Arab world has been directly connected to Western-supported autocracies and dictatorships such as Mubarak's smashing the secular left.

Since the start of the protests, the Repulsive Ideology Trophy has got to go to former British prime minister and Iraq invader Tony Blair in his interview with CNN's Piers Morgan. For Blair, democracy for the Middle East may be a good thing; but "we" have to manage it; and that means compromising with Mubarakism. Blair simply can't understand that if Mubarakism survives with a facelift, blowback will be cosmic. And it will come from all sectors of Egyptian society, the young, the apolitical, secular and Islamists alike, and from the whole Arab world.

in full: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB04Ak01.html

[catnhatnh]

1. One Hell of an op-ed

and deserving a K&R.

[Amonester]

2. Why isn't bLiar in jail for life yet?

When will adults in charge (if any...) tell him to STFU?

[Jefferson23]

4. He is still busy being an enabler..can't give it up I guess. n/t

[Poll_Blind]

3. As always, Pepe Escobar and Asia Times for the win.

:thumbsup:

PB

[bemildred]

5. Why the US fears Arab democracy

More from Pepe.

Anybody believing that Washington's "orderly transition" led by Vice President Omar Suleiman (aka Sheikh al-Torture, according to protesters and human-rights activists) could satisfy Egyptian popular will believes Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin could have gotten away with a facelift.

The young, urban masses in Egypt fighting for bread, freedom, democracy, Internet, jobs and a decent future - as well as their counterparts across the Arab world, two-thirds of the overall population - see right through it.

Real "change we can believe in" (the Egyptian version) means not only getting rid of the dictator of 30 years but of his torturer-in-chief, who happens to be so far a key interlocutor of Washington, Tel Aviv and European capitals, and a key exponent of a regime rotten to the core, dependent on pitiless exploitation of its own citizens, and receiver of US aid to pursue agendas virtually no one would vote for in the Arab world.

"Orderly transition" may also be regarded as a ghastly euphemism for sitting on the fence - way distinct from an explicit call for democracy. The White House has morphed into a succession of white pretzels trying to salvage the concept. But the fact is that as much as Pharaoh Mubarak is a slave to US foreign policy, US President Barack Obama is boxed in by geopolitical imperatives and enormous corporate interests he cannot even dream of upsetting.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB05Ak01.html

[Jefferson23]

6. Thanks for posting bemildred, but maybe think about adding this on

its own on the board.. maybe it will be read more that way...great piece.

**As much as Obama went to Cairo to "sell" the case for democracy (and one may say he's succeeded), one may bet that the Washington establishment will do all it can to try to "damage control" really democratic elections in Egypt. The financial markets and Machiavellian politicians (and we're not even considering rabid rightwingers) are almost praying for the Brotherhood to become an alternative reality so they can finally legitimate the concept of an Egyptian military dictatorship forever.

It escapes them that the real actors in Egypt, the urban, middle class masses - the people peacefully protesting in Tahrir square - know very well that fundamentalist Islam is not the solution.

The two top mass organizations in Egypt are the Brotherhood and the Christian Coptic church - both persecuted by the Mubarak regime. But it's new movements that will be crucial in the future, such as the young labor activists of April 6, associations of white and blue collar workers, as well as the New Wafd Party, a revival of the party that dominated Egypt from the 1920s to the 1950s, when the country had real parliamentary elections and real prime ministers.

The Brotherhood hardly would get more than 30% of the votes in a free and fair election (and they are firm believers in parliamentary democracy). They are not hegemonic, and definitely not the face of the new Egypt. In fact there's a strong possibility they would evolve to become similar to the AKP (Justice and Development Party) in Turkey. Moreover, according to a recent Pew poll, 59% of Egyptians want parliamentary democracy, and 60% are against religious extremism.

Egypt essentially makes money out of tourism, tolls in the Suez Canal, manufacture and agricultural exports, and aid (mostly military) such as the annual $1.5 billion from the US. It badly needs to import grain (the reason behind increasing food prices, one of the key reasons for the protests). All of this spells out a dependency on the outside world. The Egyptian souq (the bazaar), with a large Coptic Christian community, totally depends on foreign tourists.

It's fair to imagine a really representative, democratic government in Egypt would inevitably open the Gaza border and de facto liberate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. And that those Palestinians, fully supported by their neighbors in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria in the fight for their legitimate rights, would turn the "stability" of the region upside down.

So it boils down to the same old song. For bipartisan Washington, there are "good" democracies (those that keep serving US strategic interests) and "bad" democracies which vote "wrong" (such as in Gaza, or in a future Egypt, against US interests).

This is the dirty secret of the "orderly transition" in Egypt - which implies Washington only meekly condemning the bloody Mubarakism wave of repression of protesters and international media. That's considered OK - as long as the military dictatorship remains in place and the glacial status quo is maintained. Moreover, sacrosanct Israel came out swinging praising Mubarak; this also means Tel Aviv will do everything to "veto" Mohamed ElBaradei as an opposition leader.



Dirty secret indeed.