Here is a great Arab proverb in my translation: "Like the ram attacking a mountain, breaking its horns, but not the mountain."
The Muslim Brotherhood, once mixing faith with politics, has signed on its warrant for gradual extinction. Not only in the New Egypt, but anywhere it claims representation. Born 88 years ago near where I grew up in Egypt, it started with advocacy for Islamic reform under the guidance of Hassan El-Banna. Then degenerated into a call for Islamic rule.
The murder in 1947 of Egypt's Prime Minister, Al-Naqrashi Pasha by the Brotherhood signaled its descent on a slippery slope to an accelerated end. Under Prime Minister Ibrahim Abdel-Hadi, Al-Naqrashi's successor, secular Egypt liquidated Hassan El-Banna in 1948. That revenge took place only hours before El-Banna was about to flee to Syria.
Al-Hodheibi, as a successor of El-Banna, was less militant. But the seeds of suspecting every move by the Brotherhood had already been sown. The fact that the Brotherhood had infiltrated Egyptian impoverished masses through bread, sugar, tents and aspirin was of no use for its longevity.
Its penetration of the armed forces led to a short period of good feelings about the movement. The shot fired at Al-Manshiah, Alexandria, in 1954, at Nasser, who had dislodged Naguib out of the leadership of the coup against the monarchy, was a shot heard around the Muslim world. Whether it was a real or a fake attempt on the life of that rising dictator, cannot be proven by probative evidence.
What is ascertainable is the placement of the Brotherhood under a ban since 1954 till the January Revolution of January 25, 2011. Nearly 6 decades out in the cold. In spite of Nasser's liquidation of the great judge Abdel-Qader Auda in the 1950s and Sayed Qutb in the 1960's, the Brotherhood continued to cater to the religious masses.
The assassination of Nasser's successor, President Sadat, in October 1981 at the hands of Al-Islambully, an Islamist, jolted the Brotherhood into silence verging on being underground. But again, that historic crime signaled two convictions: the sword was a Muslim Brotherhood tool of last resort; and that the Brotherhood's Guidance Bureau was divided upon itself like a Mafia family.
From 1981 to 2011, a period of 30 years of being "the Disbanded Group" (Al-Jamaa Al-Monhallah), the Brotherhood under Mehdi Akef kept its head down, unable to match the power, the resources, or the discipline of the Egyptian Armed Forces.
Then the Brotherhood took two roads, both of which led to dead ends.
The first path to nowhere was reliance on internal as well as external funding. But funding does not create lasting loyalty. It only provides temporary energy for mercenaries (the Mamelouk phenomenon). The second path to nowhere was reliance on public propaganda, especially in Asia, Europe and North America. Their megaphones inflated their numbers in Egypt to 30% of the population.
That percentage is a big fat lie. There are no 30 million loyal Brotherhood adherents in Egypt. How do I know? As an attorney, when you do not have the census to provide evidence, you rely on circumstances. There has never been social science research in Egypt to prove by figures who is who, politically and socially.
Thus the smoke screen of the Brotherhood was the rally (like the Trumpist rallies of disaffected Americans).
But rallies do not legislate. They only indicate the popular depth of attitudes. As in the case of 35 million Egyptians rising on June 30, 2013 against the Brotherhood's rule. That was a corrective revolution constituting lawful popular recall of Morsi as president, in the absence of a Constitutional provision.
After the Battle of the Camel in Cairo on January 27/28, 2011, the Brotherhood which had described the rebellion against Mubarak unislamic, joined the Revolution. It was the winning side. And the Brotherhood, being imbued by opportunism, and getting recognition and the protection of the Armed Forces, sought to become the post-Mubarak regime.
Egypt obliged. The elections, pitting Muhammad Morsi of the Brotherhood against General Shafik, were held in June 2012. That was before the Constitution was drafted and legislated. A typical case of putting the cart before the horse. I voted for Morsi -a big mistake!! But within 5 months of Morsi becoming President, he pre-empted the Constitution by declaring himself in November 2012 to be exempt from the application of the law. A new combination of Sultan and Califah was now in power.
The Islamic Constitution of 2012 was not "Made in Egypt." It was "Made By the Brotherhood." And it ran counter to Egypt's DNA -a 7000 year secular State. Islam did not create a State, it created a community; Egyptian sovereignty does not permit of ceding Sinai to Hamas immigration; and the Armed Forces are the guarantor of that sovereignty, their being the only permanent institution in terms of cohesion and loyalty to the motherland. Above all, diversity of faith has always been an Egyptian hallmark.
The companion revolution of June 30, 2013 against the Islamic rule was a revolt against the Brotherhoodization of Egypt: No to the creation of Brotherhood militias; no to suppression of the Copts, women, and Shiis; no to any affinity with ISIS marauders; no to having Qatar or Turkey or any outside entity dictating how should 100 million Egyptians govern themselves.
And no to a white robe, a long beard, a pair of sandals, a raisin-like spot on the forehead, and a skull cap being the manifestations of authority. Faith and governance cannot mix; religion has been defined as "how others are treated" (Al-Din Al-Moaamalah); and Sharia is supplemented by legislation.
The expulsion of Morsi and Islamic rule on July 3, 2013, was a classic process of recall by the popular will manifested on June 30, 2013. The Islamic Constitution of 2012, now replaced by the secular Constitution of June 2014, contained no provision allowing for a legislated recall of Morsi.
Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, together with an amalgam of civic, secular and religious leaders, including the Coptic Church, failed through 4 days of negotiations with Morsi to start again through a new plebiscite. The Brotherhood refused to participate in those attempts as they regarded the presidency of Morsi as the only legitimacy (Shariyah) they can recognize.
To them the majority of the Egyptian people, including the Armed Forces, were usurpers. Even clearing the Brotherhood occupation of the Rabaa and Al-Nahda public squares in August 14, 2013, was propagandized by them as a brutal attack on human rights.
How can that be? Two main public squares in the capital of Egypt being occupied by a Brotherhood rebellion for six weeks!! Declared them Islamic Emirates was a case of internal rebellion presaging civil war. Throughout those six weeks, the Government continuous appeals to the marauding occupants went unheeded. So went the Brotherhood's calls for external intervention by force in Egypt under the false label of "humanitarian intervention." The mere passage of American naval vessels in the Suez Canal was hailed by the Brotherhood as the start of a forceful abrogation of the new secular established order!!
In Rabaa, hundreds died. Not by Government designs, as the Brotherhood propagandizes. But by the criminal designs of Brotherhood gangs who, like ISIS and its affiliates, sought victimhood (Shahadah) as a means of legitimation.
Yet more Brotherhood propaganda spewed out, especially abroad, that El-Sisi's presidency lacks legitimacy!! More advocacy by some Egyptians in New Jersey, such as a TV broadcaster named Ayat Orabi, declaring on social media obscenities such as "the Egyptian Armed Forces are a collection of whores!!" More visits to Washington by Brotherhood sympathizers to demonstrate against El-Sisi!! All in vain!!
Secular Egypt marched steadily on. The administration of interim President Adly Mansour handed power to its successor administration, that of El-Sisi. These steps came about after approval by plebiscite of the 2014 secular Constitution. These were open and fair elections (El-Sisi vs. Hamdain Sabbahi). El-Sisi, the former Defense Minister and the mediator with the Brotherhood for participation, was the choice of the majority.
El-Sisi did not come to the presidency on top of a tank. He was given the baton in an orderly democratic process of post-Islamization in an Egypt which was spared the agony of civil war.
A series of failed mischief by the Muslim Brotherhood which, among other things, tried to marginalize Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the citadel of an inclusive and universalistic Islam. Jihadism is now being confronted by "The New Islamic Religious Revolution" on which I am authoring a book.
The word "Idea" comes from the Greek "to see." It is a pattern that enables you to understand the true nature of a phenomenon.
The phenomenon of the Muslim Brotherhood, now declared in its birthplace, Egypt a terrorist organization is not hard to understand. Its idea is "Islam as a path to a fascist theocracy." The firewall against its conversion of Egypt into an emirate is the Armed Forces. Its enablers, especially those in America, such as Ayat Orabi of New Jersey, and Sheikh Salem Abdel-Galeel in Cairo are, judging by their false propaganda, sheer haters of interfaith harmony.
With the Egyptian arena preempted by secularism, the Muslim Brotherhood is in hot pursuit for life support overseas. Their megaphones, whether in Qatar, Turkey, or America, produce echo chambers. Collapsing the New Egypt is nothing but a pipe dream.
Their abuse in America of the freedom of speech is an overreach. It has turned into calls for violence against Christians, into a jihadi call for criminalized hatred.
Their mischievous veil of "political opposition" behind which they hide their calls for sectarian violence might be pierced through legal means. They have no idea (means of understanding) of the consequences of their unending mischief.
"Virtue" in Latin means "strength." Just show me one single virtue which the Muslim Brotherhood can claim!! Even the "Rabaa Salute," depicting their claimed victimhood at Rabaa Square on August 14, 2013 when hundreds died, is a crooked finger!!
NOTE: New blog postings will resume on a monthly basis until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
Friday, May 19, 2017
Friday, April 28, 2017
Do Not Blame Instability on Foreign Conspiracies - Blame It on Marginalizing Minorities
Attributing instability to foreign conspiracies is like blaming your household problems on your absent neighbors. Conspiracy advocates are essentially escapists. They are also brainwashed by the old colonial narrative. But if a nation looks at itself from within, it shall soon discover that salvation comes from within. No conspiracy has a chance for success unless a nation is so fragmented that a conspirator could come in through national cracks.
Take a broad look at the history of the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire collapsed (1516-1916) because it abused its minorities. Al-Astanah (Constantinople) regarded the Greeks, the Serbs, and the Arabs as empire-servers, not empire co-builders. The so-called Ulamas (Islamic scholars), through their deep ignorance of Islam, advocated disengagement from the west. Those Ulamas were the forefathers of Boko Haram (Western learning is sinful).
But Turkey revived in 1923 with Ata Turk ending the Caliphate and made Turkey secular. The imperial period was no more. However denying the Kurds the right to use their language and have an autonomous status in this 21st century will keep Ankra as the capital of a country which is in constant battle within itself. And if Ordogan fancies himself as the new Islamic Sultan, he must be smoking some strong weed (hashish).
In Syria, now flattened and fragmented, the minority (the Alawites-Shiis) are brutalizing the majority (Sunnis). Under Bashar, a war criminal, Syria has descended from "a failed State" to a "non-State." Bashar (ironically it means in Arabic "good tidings") might keep on fighting. But what he shall end up with is a partitioned Syria, with an Alawite enclave protected by a Russian base and is smaller than Lebanon. Again the disappearance of Syria did not result from foreign machinations. It is the inevitable outcome of a lopsided power sharing between an oppressive minority and an internally-colonized majority.
So it is laughable to still read banners at the entrance of Damascus declaring a blatant fiction: "One Nation With An Eternal Message!!" (Ummatun Wahidah That Risalaton Khalidah).
An Eternal Message has been bequeathed to the Muslims in the Quran -DIVERSITY. For Islam is not "a faith and a State." It is "a faith and a Nation." Islam does not create a State. The Quran gives clear evidence on diversity being both a natural human phenomenon the respect for which is a predicate for good governance. "If your Lord had so willed, He could have made mankind one nation." (Chapter II, Verse 118)
The terms "minority" and "majority" might also apply to women in Saudi Arabia. In spite of the huge oil wealth, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a bifurcated governance: The Governorate in Riyadh, and the Wahhabis in Diriyah. Riyadh rules, and the Wahhabis run the country's social life with a belief in denying gender equality. Whereas women sat on the councils of the Prophet Muhammad, today's Saudi women are subjected to walls, to totally covered faces except for eye peep holes, and to total rule by their male folks. Can this last forever? Impossible. Is 50% of the Saudi population a minority? Yes, a minority in being deprived of rights equal to those enjoyed by the male half of that population.
This may explain why, in Egypt, recent attacks on the Coptic minority (10% - 15%) of the nearly 100 million population have triggered the declaration of emergency laws by the government. Reporters of the New York Times based in Cairo, such as Declan Walsh do no justice to that paper's motto "All The News That Is Fit to Print." It is misleading to read a headline in that paper's issue of April 11, 2017: "Attacks Show Isis' Strategy for Egypt: Gaining Ground by Killing Christians."
Rubbish!! Does ISIS, a faction on the run, has a strategy? Are they gaining ground in Egypt? Could hits and runs or suicide bombings be a strategy -a term reserved for structural command and control? It is ominous for world peace to find the America of Trump so divided upon itself to the point that its unstable President could not accomplish through his first 100 days one single piece of legislation. And daily descriptions in US media of El-Sisi as having engineered a military coup in July 2013 against the Muslim Brotherhood shall have no effect on the New Egypt. Egypt is now becoming the only strong State in that volatile region. It is demographically cohesive.
For within the space of a few years, we might have a new Sudan (without Darfur and Kurdufan); a new Libya (back to 3 provinces); a new Yemen (South Yemen and North Yemen); a new Iraq (Kurdistan is gone, and might be followed by a fictitious sectarian divide between the Sunnis of the north, the Shiis of the south). And the non-reconciled Palestinian statelets of Ramallah and Gaza. All the historic outcomes, not of foreign conspiracies, but of uneven minorities - majorities relationship.
But Egypt is, and shall remain, a different story. Though with impoverished educational and public information systems, its DNA of national unity is always pumping reflexive energy.
This energy could be augmented by an Egyptian one person lobby in Washington, D.C. -A Copt, preferably a female, speaking good "American" as Ambassador.
That would be an enlightened response, representing a true "thinking outside the box." A monumental return to the Egypt bequeathed by Muhammad Ali. From 1832 to 1839, that Egypt has nearly conquered the ailing Ottoman Empire. Cairo's weapon was diversity!!
NOTE: New blog postings shall be periodical, until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
Take a broad look at the history of the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire collapsed (1516-1916) because it abused its minorities. Al-Astanah (Constantinople) regarded the Greeks, the Serbs, and the Arabs as empire-servers, not empire co-builders. The so-called Ulamas (Islamic scholars), through their deep ignorance of Islam, advocated disengagement from the west. Those Ulamas were the forefathers of Boko Haram (Western learning is sinful).
But Turkey revived in 1923 with Ata Turk ending the Caliphate and made Turkey secular. The imperial period was no more. However denying the Kurds the right to use their language and have an autonomous status in this 21st century will keep Ankra as the capital of a country which is in constant battle within itself. And if Ordogan fancies himself as the new Islamic Sultan, he must be smoking some strong weed (hashish).
In Syria, now flattened and fragmented, the minority (the Alawites-Shiis) are brutalizing the majority (Sunnis). Under Bashar, a war criminal, Syria has descended from "a failed State" to a "non-State." Bashar (ironically it means in Arabic "good tidings") might keep on fighting. But what he shall end up with is a partitioned Syria, with an Alawite enclave protected by a Russian base and is smaller than Lebanon. Again the disappearance of Syria did not result from foreign machinations. It is the inevitable outcome of a lopsided power sharing between an oppressive minority and an internally-colonized majority.
So it is laughable to still read banners at the entrance of Damascus declaring a blatant fiction: "One Nation With An Eternal Message!!" (Ummatun Wahidah That Risalaton Khalidah).
An Eternal Message has been bequeathed to the Muslims in the Quran -DIVERSITY. For Islam is not "a faith and a State." It is "a faith and a Nation." Islam does not create a State. The Quran gives clear evidence on diversity being both a natural human phenomenon the respect for which is a predicate for good governance. "If your Lord had so willed, He could have made mankind one nation." (Chapter II, Verse 118)
The terms "minority" and "majority" might also apply to women in Saudi Arabia. In spite of the huge oil wealth, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a bifurcated governance: The Governorate in Riyadh, and the Wahhabis in Diriyah. Riyadh rules, and the Wahhabis run the country's social life with a belief in denying gender equality. Whereas women sat on the councils of the Prophet Muhammad, today's Saudi women are subjected to walls, to totally covered faces except for eye peep holes, and to total rule by their male folks. Can this last forever? Impossible. Is 50% of the Saudi population a minority? Yes, a minority in being deprived of rights equal to those enjoyed by the male half of that population.
This may explain why, in Egypt, recent attacks on the Coptic minority (10% - 15%) of the nearly 100 million population have triggered the declaration of emergency laws by the government. Reporters of the New York Times based in Cairo, such as Declan Walsh do no justice to that paper's motto "All The News That Is Fit to Print." It is misleading to read a headline in that paper's issue of April 11, 2017: "Attacks Show Isis' Strategy for Egypt: Gaining Ground by Killing Christians."
Rubbish!! Does ISIS, a faction on the run, has a strategy? Are they gaining ground in Egypt? Could hits and runs or suicide bombings be a strategy -a term reserved for structural command and control? It is ominous for world peace to find the America of Trump so divided upon itself to the point that its unstable President could not accomplish through his first 100 days one single piece of legislation. And daily descriptions in US media of El-Sisi as having engineered a military coup in July 2013 against the Muslim Brotherhood shall have no effect on the New Egypt. Egypt is now becoming the only strong State in that volatile region. It is demographically cohesive.
For within the space of a few years, we might have a new Sudan (without Darfur and Kurdufan); a new Libya (back to 3 provinces); a new Yemen (South Yemen and North Yemen); a new Iraq (Kurdistan is gone, and might be followed by a fictitious sectarian divide between the Sunnis of the north, the Shiis of the south). And the non-reconciled Palestinian statelets of Ramallah and Gaza. All the historic outcomes, not of foreign conspiracies, but of uneven minorities - majorities relationship.
But Egypt is, and shall remain, a different story. Though with impoverished educational and public information systems, its DNA of national unity is always pumping reflexive energy.
This energy could be augmented by an Egyptian one person lobby in Washington, D.C. -A Copt, preferably a female, speaking good "American" as Ambassador.
That would be an enlightened response, representing a true "thinking outside the box." A monumental return to the Egypt bequeathed by Muhammad Ali. From 1832 to 1839, that Egypt has nearly conquered the ailing Ottoman Empire. Cairo's weapon was diversity!!
NOTE: New blog postings shall be periodical, until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
Friday, April 7, 2017
Striking Syria Is a Legal Strike For Humanity!!
This is not in praise of Trump. It is a salutation for the doctrine of "international humanitarian intervention." It is easy to understand. When a State commits genocidal acts against its own citizens, it is lowering the walls surrounding it (we call it sovereignty) for the outside world to jump over them and say "enough." Bashar Al-Assad has used against his own citizens chlorine bombs, nerve gas, and now, in Idlib, has used Sarine gas. On Tuesday, April 4, about 100 victims, including dozens of children, have suffocated.
By doing so, he has proved that, to him and his supporters, sovereignty meant a fake license in the hands of the State (and Syria is no longer a State except in name only) to kill en masse. How obtuse for him to miscalculate in a big way: that the Trump search for accommodation with Putin is a shield for his murderous regime; that the non-action by Obama on crossing "red lines" shall hold under Trump; that Trump's support for that inaction before the Trump's presidency shall hold; and that the justification used by him as his war on ISIS shall save him from being considered a war criminal.
Launching 59 missiles by the US navy on April 6 against the Syrian Shayrat airfield from which the Sarin attack on Idlib was launched demonstrates a general fault line in Arab thinking about America. That comprehension deficiency boils down to the non-understanding of the U.S. as a compartmentalized State.
Because of the decline in education in the Arab homeland, the process of thinking about issues is very linear: things are either white or black; relations are based on being a friend or a foe; if you take from me, it is a zero-sum situation whereby I lost totally and you gained totally. No nuancing, no compartmentalization.
How is America compartmentalized? A modern State can do many things simultaneously, regardless of the surface appearance of contradictions. Here are actual examples from the recent episode of striking Syria -a strike which may lead to other strikes in the coming days:
By doing so, he has proved that, to him and his supporters, sovereignty meant a fake license in the hands of the State (and Syria is no longer a State except in name only) to kill en masse. How obtuse for him to miscalculate in a big way: that the Trump search for accommodation with Putin is a shield for his murderous regime; that the non-action by Obama on crossing "red lines" shall hold under Trump; that Trump's support for that inaction before the Trump's presidency shall hold; and that the justification used by him as his war on ISIS shall save him from being considered a war criminal.
Launching 59 missiles by the US navy on April 6 against the Syrian Shayrat airfield from which the Sarin attack on Idlib was launched demonstrates a general fault line in Arab thinking about America. That comprehension deficiency boils down to the non-understanding of the U.S. as a compartmentalized State.
Because of the decline in education in the Arab homeland, the process of thinking about issues is very linear: things are either white or black; relations are based on being a friend or a foe; if you take from me, it is a zero-sum situation whereby I lost totally and you gained totally. No nuancing, no compartmentalization.
How is America compartmentalized? A modern State can do many things simultaneously, regardless of the surface appearance of contradictions. Here are actual examples from the recent episode of striking Syria -a strike which may lead to other strikes in the coming days:
- The US national security council has just been reorganized: separating national security from politics;
- The professionals of the 17 US security agencies, together with the Pentagon and the military contracting industry have chased away the opponents of globalization, like Steve Bannon, from meddling in war and peace issues;
- The "America First" of Trump has been re-interpreted to mean: yes for rebuilding the infra-structure, but no for disengagement from the world;
- Investigating the connections between the Trump team and Russia shall go on, while Trump is allowed to garner the glory of a tough America to himself;
- The UN could be downgraded, while Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN, is upgraded to have a seat on the US national security council;
- The issue of human rights within States can be ignored as encumbering US diplomacy with those States.But the Syria attack on the UN Convention Against the Use of Chemical Weapons cannot be set aside;
- While Trump was dining with the Chinese President at his Florida privately-owned southern White House (Mar-A-Lago) -the U.S. navy was nullifying through that missile attack on the Assad regime, the presence of fixed Russian bases on the Syrian coast.
This is the essence of American mixing of party politics, strategy, national interest and diplomacy in a composite whole with so many facets that rotates all the time like a strobe light in a darkened night club.
As a result of this constant dynamic, the American strike on the Syrian Shayrat airbase, is expected to be followed by others. For the message telegraphed by American compartmentalization is not aimed only at Bashar who can no longer aspire to rule over a united Syria.
As a result of this constant dynamic, the American strike on the Syrian Shayrat airbase, is expected to be followed by others. For the message telegraphed by American compartmentalization is not aimed only at Bashar who can no longer aspire to rule over a united Syria.
The message is complex as it is directed, not from the White House, which under Trump is a house divided onto itself, but from the myriad of tissues which can only be deciphered by constant analysis. Deciphering here means being turned into ordinary writing, whose impact may last only for a short period, only to be replaced by fresh analysis.
This is a message that says, for now, the following:
- To the Gulf: there is no American abandonment; just pay for your own defense, and America, with two huge navies in the Mediterranean and the Gulf, shall keep its finger on the trigger;
- To Russia: there is a difference between asserting your power in your "near abroad" (the Ukraine...etc.) in the south, and your pressure on the "near abroad" (the Baltics ...etc.) in the north. The latter is shadowed by NATO, through Poland and Scandinavia;
- To North Korea: watch out, Pyongyang, we are watching. We have 37,000 American troops in South Korea. And your emboldened nuclear missile technology is a threat to East Asia and America's west coast. The time has come for planting nuclear weapons in South Korea;
- To ISIS: you may live on as free lancers of marauding hit and run; but Mosul (Iraq) and Raqqa (Syria) shall be over-run; and
- To regional strong Arab States, such as the New Egypt: we can cooperate in specific well-defined areas. The war on terror and American private investments are examples.
- The Russian thesis of "no intervention in internal affairs" has been well served by the Soviet and later Russian use of the veto in the UN Security Council. A non-changeable thesis since 1945. But this doctrine draws its life from another doctrine, namely, sovereignty.
But Moscow, on its attack at the UN Security Council on the American strike, ignores the growth of the doctrine of international humanitarian intervention. A doctrine which has grown out of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (protection of civilians in times of war), augmented by the UN Conventions against genocide, civil and political rights, the use of chemical weapons, and the non-resort to weapons of mass destruction.
Russia's present resort to the UN Security Council shall be of no avail. And if push comes to shove militarily in the eastern Mediterranean, America's military and economic power shall overwhelm Putin's Russia. Putin may have overplayed his hand, thinking that a Trump-Putin detente might preempt America's military actions.
Even a possible Putin blackmail of Trump for the latter's presumed sexual indiscretions while in Moscow in 2013 might cause the Trump administration to look the other way. It shall not.
While Putin may be the sole actor in Russia, Trump is beholden to the complexity of a compartmentalized America -a country of 50 States stitched together in one. The economy of California alone is bigger than the economy of France. And the half trillion dollars budget of the Pentagon makes America militarily ahead of the next 20 sovereign States of today.
Should America be the world's gendarme? No!! But at these times of our world being in disarray, a swift military action by the US is intended for several purposes. High among these purposes is the projection of US military power. This power is exercised now without a Congressional declaration of war.
For the enemy is diffuse, terrorism has neither boundaries nor uniforms nor real faith, unpredictability by a receding ISIS is outmatched by the unpredictability of a constantly innovating military "lean and mean" American machine.
Syria is expected to be hit again and again. The Syrian UN representative might babble on at the Security Council about "criminal aggression." But who is listening and what could an enfeebled international organization do, except to record a hollow speech?
"Take Assad's air force out" is the new norm. The real action on Syria is now in Washington, D.C., and Moscow, and Brussels (on billions of dollars for reconstruction).
In the era of "universal jurisdiction," any State can act. Yet, in the Arab world, complexities are tiresome. Analysis is deficient. Resort to vocalization is a national pastime. Arab media are nearly comatose!!
NOTE: New blog postings shall be periodical, until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
NOTE: New blog postings shall be periodical, until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
Friday, March 31, 2017
Fake News About Truth and Victory, Across Pages of Modern History
Fake news, like fake material, are contrived to look like the real thing. Those who create them, especially in the age of social media, are fakers engaged in deception. Most of fake news are the stuff from which propaganda is made. A cover for defeat, or unfulfilled promises, or an inducement to feel good especially when the outcome is terrible.
Fakers come from all cultures, and all geographic regions, especially when a dictator is actively seeking a cover-up. This is different from purposeful deception in times of armed conflict, because war strategy invariably looks for fooling the enemy.
In the age of Donald Trump, the issue of fake news has become a special industry. Trump and his supporters, whether in America or elsewhere where xenophobia is ascendant, have made faking a substitute for either truth or experience. Such fakers begin by attacking the credibility of proven truths as lies (fake news) to allow their own lies a space in the public square.
A most recent example about Trump as a faker is when, on March 20, his health care plan was withdrawn from the House of Representative rather than suffer certain defeat. Thus the Obama Care (Affordable Care Act), which Trump has vowed to "repeal and replace, from Day One in the Oval Office" continues to be the law of the land. Faking victory, in spite of that major defeat, Trump described the Democratic leadership "the real losers."
Deeper cover-ups by Trump are his denials of any contacts by him or members of his team with any Russian officials to help him win the Oval Office, his description of the Muslim Ban as "a security shield for America," his igniting hatred of Muslims by saying "they hate us, and want to kill us."
Laughing about these racist claims, the American comedians on the TV series "Saturday Night Live" had a response for Trump. On March 25/26, they said: "If 1.7 billion Muslims want to hurt you, there must be something wrong with you!!"
And how can the world ever forget a historic Iraqi faker called Al-Sahhaf?! Information Minister for Saddam Hussein who in April 2003, he declared in Baghdad: "We are surrounding the Americans, crushing them!!" This is while the American tanks were rumbling in Baghdad at a stone throw distance from Al-Sahhaf, now known as "Baghdad's Bob."
In a similar vein of faking the news was Nasser's justification of the outcome of the Six Days War which lost Arab lands to the Israeli military juggernaut in June 1967. He declared: "We were expecting the enemy to attack from the east, but they came from the west!!" How unbecoming for a military leader to justify that terrible defeat through an obtuse ignorance of what his Arab forebears have always declared: "War is cunning!!" (Al-Harb Khudaa).
Ironically it was Nasser's under appreciated successor, Sadat, who through the adoption of a grand deception plan, was able in October 1973 to regain for Egypt's military both dignity and confidence. But not before historic damage was done elsewhere. Lost, at least for now, is Arab sovereignty over the Golan, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. A huge cost due to mismanagement by Nasser as of April 1967 when he precipitated the removal of the UN peace-keepers from Sinai.
The same disease of faking news has plagued Hamas which is in control of Gaza in competition with Fatah in Ramallah which is no less faker of news than Hamas.
Hamas, the "Islamic Resistance Movement," feigns victory in the midst of disastrous consequences. In its confrontation from 2008 to 2010 with Israel which besieges Gaza, Hamas leaders claim success in the form of tunnelling for safety. One does not expect Hamas to hold Israel, the 4th largest military machine in the world at bay. But how can the total destruction of 14000 Arab dwellings in Gaza be measured by Hamas as a military success?
That pattern of deception by Arab leaders, particularly in Syria, Yemen and the Sudan, cannot be less comical. Bashar, even after the most brutal civil war in world history would have subsided, shall never be expected to rule over a non-divided Syria. And the war against the Houthis shall not end in a Yemen Republic of a united North (tribal) and South (progressive).
In the Sudan, Bashar's rule whose longevity is approaching that of the defunct Mubarak rule in Egypt, is presiding over a country which is preoccupied with this question: "Which province is expected to split away next from Khartoum: Darfour or Kordofan?"
Here the fake news in the Sudan are centered on "the national dialogue" about "the earlier national dialogue," about "the earliest national dialogue." It is the same dreary song and dance about Palestinian national unity by Abbas in "the State of Ramallah," and Mishaal in "the State of Gaza." Fakery can never be guidance toward national cohesion and progress.
So is in the grand case of the Muslim Brotherhood: Faking the news of being a social humanitarian movement while empowering its fake news machine to claim legitimacy in the face of the opposition by 35 million Egyptians in June 2013. That protest movement against turning cosmopolitan Egypt into an Islamic Emirate forced the Brotherhood to shed its humanitarian veil, revealing its true conspiratorial terroristic ethos in the land of the Nile. Legitimacy can never spring from the muzzle of a gun or the explosion of a device by the road side.
It was Kissinger who called for America's exit from Vietnam in the early 1970s. But that was also through "fake news." Stalemated by the Vietcong, and with more than 50,000 American military death count on the battlefield, Kissinger advised: "Why not declare American victory then depart from Vietnam?" It worked, but only in terms of "the departure" part of the Kissingerian equation. Ho Chi Minh knew that he had to deflate the claim of victory through the imposition of his tough terms during the Paris negotiations in the mid 1970s.
Faking news about non-achieved victories is like opium administered largely by failing leaders. It makes the populace feel good for a while. But the hangover lasts much longer causing real damage to the fabric of confidence between the Ruler and the Ruled.
But the prize for the most egregious and dangerous faker in modern history shall go to Donald Trump, the 45th president of the U.S. A book by an American author has hit the shelves in early March 2017. It is about Trump being the least fit president in US history. Its title is "How The Hell Did We Get Here?"
Getting "here" was due largely to decades of "spin." Such as America encouraging Saddam to attack the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1980? Then to turn on him in 2003 on the fraudulent claim of possessing "weapons of mass destruction."
Should I stop here?! Perhaps not. The New York Times Magazine of Sunday March 19, 2017 carried a lengthy article on Egypt. With a title of "Generation Jail," I recorded no less than 10 errors of fact (fake news). These included the fallacy that President Adly Mansour (2013-2014) was installed by the military, not through a broad national consensus.
It also included the hoax about the severity of the Egyptian law regulating demonstrations. Really? Just compare that law with the American law. You shall quickly find that the American equivalent is in fact much more restrictive than the Egyptian one. Especially in regard to: "Time," "Place," and "Manner" of holding an approved public demonstration. We all remember what happened to the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Forget about the fraudulent testimony of some faculty members at the American University of Cairo (the AUC).
Lies have a very short shelf life. But their after effects could be very lasting. Just remember the horrible fake episodes about "the humane treatment" of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo!! I can build a whole graduate course of study around these two black holes!! An appropriate title for it might be "The Hate and Fake Interdependency."
NOTE: New blog postings will resume on a monthly basis until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
Fakers come from all cultures, and all geographic regions, especially when a dictator is actively seeking a cover-up. This is different from purposeful deception in times of armed conflict, because war strategy invariably looks for fooling the enemy.
In the age of Donald Trump, the issue of fake news has become a special industry. Trump and his supporters, whether in America or elsewhere where xenophobia is ascendant, have made faking a substitute for either truth or experience. Such fakers begin by attacking the credibility of proven truths as lies (fake news) to allow their own lies a space in the public square.
A most recent example about Trump as a faker is when, on March 20, his health care plan was withdrawn from the House of Representative rather than suffer certain defeat. Thus the Obama Care (Affordable Care Act), which Trump has vowed to "repeal and replace, from Day One in the Oval Office" continues to be the law of the land. Faking victory, in spite of that major defeat, Trump described the Democratic leadership "the real losers."
Deeper cover-ups by Trump are his denials of any contacts by him or members of his team with any Russian officials to help him win the Oval Office, his description of the Muslim Ban as "a security shield for America," his igniting hatred of Muslims by saying "they hate us, and want to kill us."
Laughing about these racist claims, the American comedians on the TV series "Saturday Night Live" had a response for Trump. On March 25/26, they said: "If 1.7 billion Muslims want to hurt you, there must be something wrong with you!!"
And how can the world ever forget a historic Iraqi faker called Al-Sahhaf?! Information Minister for Saddam Hussein who in April 2003, he declared in Baghdad: "We are surrounding the Americans, crushing them!!" This is while the American tanks were rumbling in Baghdad at a stone throw distance from Al-Sahhaf, now known as "Baghdad's Bob."
In a similar vein of faking the news was Nasser's justification of the outcome of the Six Days War which lost Arab lands to the Israeli military juggernaut in June 1967. He declared: "We were expecting the enemy to attack from the east, but they came from the west!!" How unbecoming for a military leader to justify that terrible defeat through an obtuse ignorance of what his Arab forebears have always declared: "War is cunning!!" (Al-Harb Khudaa).
Ironically it was Nasser's under appreciated successor, Sadat, who through the adoption of a grand deception plan, was able in October 1973 to regain for Egypt's military both dignity and confidence. But not before historic damage was done elsewhere. Lost, at least for now, is Arab sovereignty over the Golan, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. A huge cost due to mismanagement by Nasser as of April 1967 when he precipitated the removal of the UN peace-keepers from Sinai.
The same disease of faking news has plagued Hamas which is in control of Gaza in competition with Fatah in Ramallah which is no less faker of news than Hamas.
Hamas, the "Islamic Resistance Movement," feigns victory in the midst of disastrous consequences. In its confrontation from 2008 to 2010 with Israel which besieges Gaza, Hamas leaders claim success in the form of tunnelling for safety. One does not expect Hamas to hold Israel, the 4th largest military machine in the world at bay. But how can the total destruction of 14000 Arab dwellings in Gaza be measured by Hamas as a military success?
That pattern of deception by Arab leaders, particularly in Syria, Yemen and the Sudan, cannot be less comical. Bashar, even after the most brutal civil war in world history would have subsided, shall never be expected to rule over a non-divided Syria. And the war against the Houthis shall not end in a Yemen Republic of a united North (tribal) and South (progressive).
In the Sudan, Bashar's rule whose longevity is approaching that of the defunct Mubarak rule in Egypt, is presiding over a country which is preoccupied with this question: "Which province is expected to split away next from Khartoum: Darfour or Kordofan?"
Here the fake news in the Sudan are centered on "the national dialogue" about "the earlier national dialogue," about "the earliest national dialogue." It is the same dreary song and dance about Palestinian national unity by Abbas in "the State of Ramallah," and Mishaal in "the State of Gaza." Fakery can never be guidance toward national cohesion and progress.
So is in the grand case of the Muslim Brotherhood: Faking the news of being a social humanitarian movement while empowering its fake news machine to claim legitimacy in the face of the opposition by 35 million Egyptians in June 2013. That protest movement against turning cosmopolitan Egypt into an Islamic Emirate forced the Brotherhood to shed its humanitarian veil, revealing its true conspiratorial terroristic ethos in the land of the Nile. Legitimacy can never spring from the muzzle of a gun or the explosion of a device by the road side.
It was Kissinger who called for America's exit from Vietnam in the early 1970s. But that was also through "fake news." Stalemated by the Vietcong, and with more than 50,000 American military death count on the battlefield, Kissinger advised: "Why not declare American victory then depart from Vietnam?" It worked, but only in terms of "the departure" part of the Kissingerian equation. Ho Chi Minh knew that he had to deflate the claim of victory through the imposition of his tough terms during the Paris negotiations in the mid 1970s.
Faking news about non-achieved victories is like opium administered largely by failing leaders. It makes the populace feel good for a while. But the hangover lasts much longer causing real damage to the fabric of confidence between the Ruler and the Ruled.
But the prize for the most egregious and dangerous faker in modern history shall go to Donald Trump, the 45th president of the U.S. A book by an American author has hit the shelves in early March 2017. It is about Trump being the least fit president in US history. Its title is "How The Hell Did We Get Here?"
Getting "here" was due largely to decades of "spin." Such as America encouraging Saddam to attack the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1980? Then to turn on him in 2003 on the fraudulent claim of possessing "weapons of mass destruction."
Should I stop here?! Perhaps not. The New York Times Magazine of Sunday March 19, 2017 carried a lengthy article on Egypt. With a title of "Generation Jail," I recorded no less than 10 errors of fact (fake news). These included the fallacy that President Adly Mansour (2013-2014) was installed by the military, not through a broad national consensus.
It also included the hoax about the severity of the Egyptian law regulating demonstrations. Really? Just compare that law with the American law. You shall quickly find that the American equivalent is in fact much more restrictive than the Egyptian one. Especially in regard to: "Time," "Place," and "Manner" of holding an approved public demonstration. We all remember what happened to the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Forget about the fraudulent testimony of some faculty members at the American University of Cairo (the AUC).
Lies have a very short shelf life. But their after effects could be very lasting. Just remember the horrible fake episodes about "the humane treatment" of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo!! I can build a whole graduate course of study around these two black holes!! An appropriate title for it might be "The Hate and Fake Interdependency."
NOTE: New blog postings will resume on a monthly basis until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
Friday, March 17, 2017
Uncanny Similarity Between Donald Trump and Deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi
They don't look alike. But are as unfit for presiding respectively over America or Egypt, they match.
Trump puts himself above the law, saying, in critical cases, it does not apply to the President. So did Muslim Brotherhood Morsi in Egypt. Trump sees no conflict of interest in mixing between the business of his 550 companies and being the President of the United States. So did Morsi when he declared, during his presidency, that he was above the law.
Perceiving Russia as in loco ally of the U.S., Trump has seen no problem in Russian slicing off of part of the Ukraine, "Wouldn't it be nice to get along," he intoned. In Egypt, Morsi, during the Brotherhood's reign of darkness (2012-2013), saw in Turkey and Pakistan foreign policy extensions of Cairo.
Morsi did not have the material riches of Donald Trump. Far from it. But in Khairat El-Shatter, the Brotherhood's money bags, there was an equivalency.
The Brotherhood's coffers were supplemented by unaccounted for financial dollops from overseas. The State's Central Accounting Office in Cairo was barred from even raising questions. These were regarded as "charitable contributions" from abroad, and the hand of the State could not reach them for counting or accounting.
How similar is that to Trump's non-divulgence of his taxes either before the elections or after his elevation to the post of president. "We are being audited by the Internal Revenue Service" -he posited. No proof on that. And if a proof is produced about that feigned audit, no conflict in divulging the amount and sources of his claimed riches for both transparency and payment of US taxes.
Trump came to the Oval Office, not through the majority of the popular vote on November 8, 2016. His non-merited ascendancy to the most influential executive post in the whole world came through a Constitutional gimmick called the Electoral College. An appendix in the American Constitutional structure which had been intended by the founding framers to keep mobocracy out of ruling America. Well, that safety valve has malfunctioned, as it backfired through the enraged mobs being counted for the purpose of satisfying the Electoral College.
In Morsi's case, the route to the presidency in Egypt was circuitous, but led in the same direction. First Morsi was not the first choice of the Muslim Brotherhood. (Nor was Trump for the Republican establishment in America. Sixteen others competed with him for the coveted prize). But once Morsi was chosen, his gaining over his opponent, General Shafik, left the legitimacy of the vote count in doubt. Even with one and a half percent edge in the popular vote over Shafik, the ballot boxes were not secure. And judicial monitoring was not geographically even.
Both Trump and Morsi have a distinct propensity for war. Trump has declared "I love war;" and Morsi beat the drums for warring against Ethiopia over the construction by Addis Ababa of the Renaissance Dam over the Blue Nile. "Egypt will go dry -a catastrophe," screamed Morsi. Yet all the while, Morsi looked the other way as Hamas denied the very existence of Israel with which Egypt has a peace treaty.
The two men share the same perception of brotherly movements abroad as means of legitimating their rule over their respective countries. Trump sees in the British Brexit and the rise of the right in Europe a vindication of the neo-isolation of America. The deposed Egyptian President saw in a mythical Caliphate over all Muslim lands the road to the resurgence of Islam, as interpreted by the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is interesting to note that neither Trump nor Morsi has an inclination to read. Trump has openly manifested that. But Morsi has proved it by circumstantial evidence. Morsi claims a Ph.D. in engineering from California. The question is this: Has he written that dissertation? Or was it written for him on commission. For if he had written it, then where is the proper English language which surely develops and expands in its vocabulary through the arduous self-authorship of a Ph.D. dissertation?
In a small pamphlet titled "Accomplishments by President Dr. Mohamed Morsi," nearly 500 projects are listed. From dredging a canal in Upper Egypt to the repair of the railroad between Cairo and Alexandria. All by Morsi!! So are Trump's claims to great accomplishments within 50 days. Pre-election plans for industrial expansion by large US companies are immediately claimed by that narcissistic president to be a part of Trump's achievements.
Anxiety reigns over America since the assumption by Trump of the U.S. presidency. In certain instances that anxiety translates into outright fear, experienced by immigrants worried over deportation for the flimsiest infraction. Included in those widening circles of fear are Muslims, due to the Muslim ban, compounded by raising red flags over the misnomer "Islamic terrorism." As if terrorism has a faith!!
So was the case in Egypt, during the Islamist reign of obscurantism of the Muslim Brotherhood. The targets were the Copts, the liberals, the other secularists, women. Tourism dried up, compounding the economic woes of Egypt of 100 million. Attackers of churches, Shiis, unveiled women, and the very message of Al-Azhar went unpunished. It was the reign of impunity gone mad!!
Neither Trump nor Morsi saw in the judiciary a co-equal branch of the Government. In Egypt, the Supreme Constitutional Court was besieged for weeks by Brotherhood hooligans. The Brotherhood controlled both the executive, and its own Brotherhood majority parliament. As for Trump, judgments by the judiciary were attributed to the ethnic background of one federal judge, or to incompetence as in the case of freezing the Trumpian executive order affecting the freedom of movement in and out of the U.S. Trump called the orders issued by the U.S. judiciary, whether in Washington State or in Hawaii, "judicial over-reach!!"
One more thought remains: The Egyptian Revolution of June 30, 2013 has resulted in the removal of Morsi, thus saving Egypt from the possibility of civil war. In America, the nation is deeply divided; the three branches of government, including the judiciary through the possible confirming of a very conservative ninth justice for the Supreme Court; the growing anxiety over Russia's influence and possible blackmail over Trump, are all the kinds of drip drip drip which may end up in shortening the tenure of Trump's presidency.
Similar features of governance by Trump and Morsi are manifest in two critical areas: They both have failed in keeping religion and State separate. And they both seemed to treat the armed forces of their respective countries as if they were their personal institutions. Witness the oft-repeated Trump's reference to: "My Generals."
Am I forcing similarities between Trump and Morsi into my own perception of dislike for both? Possibly. Of course, Trump may yet declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization -a measure worthy of the just war on terrorism. But whatever happens, with such actions, I cannot avert my gaze over two presidents who have acted similarly in a variety of issues.
Trump puts himself above the law, saying, in critical cases, it does not apply to the President. So did Muslim Brotherhood Morsi in Egypt. Trump sees no conflict of interest in mixing between the business of his 550 companies and being the President of the United States. So did Morsi when he declared, during his presidency, that he was above the law.
Perceiving Russia as in loco ally of the U.S., Trump has seen no problem in Russian slicing off of part of the Ukraine, "Wouldn't it be nice to get along," he intoned. In Egypt, Morsi, during the Brotherhood's reign of darkness (2012-2013), saw in Turkey and Pakistan foreign policy extensions of Cairo.
Morsi did not have the material riches of Donald Trump. Far from it. But in Khairat El-Shatter, the Brotherhood's money bags, there was an equivalency.
The Brotherhood's coffers were supplemented by unaccounted for financial dollops from overseas. The State's Central Accounting Office in Cairo was barred from even raising questions. These were regarded as "charitable contributions" from abroad, and the hand of the State could not reach them for counting or accounting.
How similar is that to Trump's non-divulgence of his taxes either before the elections or after his elevation to the post of president. "We are being audited by the Internal Revenue Service" -he posited. No proof on that. And if a proof is produced about that feigned audit, no conflict in divulging the amount and sources of his claimed riches for both transparency and payment of US taxes.
Trump came to the Oval Office, not through the majority of the popular vote on November 8, 2016. His non-merited ascendancy to the most influential executive post in the whole world came through a Constitutional gimmick called the Electoral College. An appendix in the American Constitutional structure which had been intended by the founding framers to keep mobocracy out of ruling America. Well, that safety valve has malfunctioned, as it backfired through the enraged mobs being counted for the purpose of satisfying the Electoral College.
In Morsi's case, the route to the presidency in Egypt was circuitous, but led in the same direction. First Morsi was not the first choice of the Muslim Brotherhood. (Nor was Trump for the Republican establishment in America. Sixteen others competed with him for the coveted prize). But once Morsi was chosen, his gaining over his opponent, General Shafik, left the legitimacy of the vote count in doubt. Even with one and a half percent edge in the popular vote over Shafik, the ballot boxes were not secure. And judicial monitoring was not geographically even.
Both Trump and Morsi have a distinct propensity for war. Trump has declared "I love war;" and Morsi beat the drums for warring against Ethiopia over the construction by Addis Ababa of the Renaissance Dam over the Blue Nile. "Egypt will go dry -a catastrophe," screamed Morsi. Yet all the while, Morsi looked the other way as Hamas denied the very existence of Israel with which Egypt has a peace treaty.
The two men share the same perception of brotherly movements abroad as means of legitimating their rule over their respective countries. Trump sees in the British Brexit and the rise of the right in Europe a vindication of the neo-isolation of America. The deposed Egyptian President saw in a mythical Caliphate over all Muslim lands the road to the resurgence of Islam, as interpreted by the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is interesting to note that neither Trump nor Morsi has an inclination to read. Trump has openly manifested that. But Morsi has proved it by circumstantial evidence. Morsi claims a Ph.D. in engineering from California. The question is this: Has he written that dissertation? Or was it written for him on commission. For if he had written it, then where is the proper English language which surely develops and expands in its vocabulary through the arduous self-authorship of a Ph.D. dissertation?
In a small pamphlet titled "Accomplishments by President Dr. Mohamed Morsi," nearly 500 projects are listed. From dredging a canal in Upper Egypt to the repair of the railroad between Cairo and Alexandria. All by Morsi!! So are Trump's claims to great accomplishments within 50 days. Pre-election plans for industrial expansion by large US companies are immediately claimed by that narcissistic president to be a part of Trump's achievements.
Anxiety reigns over America since the assumption by Trump of the U.S. presidency. In certain instances that anxiety translates into outright fear, experienced by immigrants worried over deportation for the flimsiest infraction. Included in those widening circles of fear are Muslims, due to the Muslim ban, compounded by raising red flags over the misnomer "Islamic terrorism." As if terrorism has a faith!!
So was the case in Egypt, during the Islamist reign of obscurantism of the Muslim Brotherhood. The targets were the Copts, the liberals, the other secularists, women. Tourism dried up, compounding the economic woes of Egypt of 100 million. Attackers of churches, Shiis, unveiled women, and the very message of Al-Azhar went unpunished. It was the reign of impunity gone mad!!
Neither Trump nor Morsi saw in the judiciary a co-equal branch of the Government. In Egypt, the Supreme Constitutional Court was besieged for weeks by Brotherhood hooligans. The Brotherhood controlled both the executive, and its own Brotherhood majority parliament. As for Trump, judgments by the judiciary were attributed to the ethnic background of one federal judge, or to incompetence as in the case of freezing the Trumpian executive order affecting the freedom of movement in and out of the U.S. Trump called the orders issued by the U.S. judiciary, whether in Washington State or in Hawaii, "judicial over-reach!!"
One more thought remains: The Egyptian Revolution of June 30, 2013 has resulted in the removal of Morsi, thus saving Egypt from the possibility of civil war. In America, the nation is deeply divided; the three branches of government, including the judiciary through the possible confirming of a very conservative ninth justice for the Supreme Court; the growing anxiety over Russia's influence and possible blackmail over Trump, are all the kinds of drip drip drip which may end up in shortening the tenure of Trump's presidency.
Similar features of governance by Trump and Morsi are manifest in two critical areas: They both have failed in keeping religion and State separate. And they both seemed to treat the armed forces of their respective countries as if they were their personal institutions. Witness the oft-repeated Trump's reference to: "My Generals."
Am I forcing similarities between Trump and Morsi into my own perception of dislike for both? Possibly. Of course, Trump may yet declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization -a measure worthy of the just war on terrorism. But whatever happens, with such actions, I cannot avert my gaze over two presidents who have acted similarly in a variety of issues.
In life, similarity of circumstances, especially in governance, generally leads to similar outcomes. The parallel of the Trump and Morsi trajectories is difficult to ignore. Both of them have rested their thrones on the perilous grounds of "I won!!"
Both Trump and Morsi live on the same oxygen. Their oxygen is called the mob. They both draw their fancied approval from the howling masses. For Morsi it was Rabaa and El-Nahdha. For Trump it is Nashville, Tennessee and Michigan.
The Trumpists, especially Steve Bannon, Trump's highest adviser, are calling for "the destruction of the administrative State." This anti-State call evokes the horrible memory of a Muslim Brotherhood earlier call. "Toz Fi Misr" (to Hell with Egypt) which was uttered by a Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide.
There could be nothing either "supreme" or "guidance" in belittling Egypt of 7000 years of existence.
NOTE: New blog postings will resume on a monthly basis until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
There could be nothing either "supreme" or "guidance" in belittling Egypt of 7000 years of existence.
NOTE: New blog postings will resume on a monthly basis until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
Monday, February 20, 2017
Under Trump, The Arrival of A Chaotic "American Spring!!"
This is a "Made In America" American Spring. Quite different from the Arab Spring. Its participants are not the masses. They are the billionaires. Its ethos is not democracy; it is the gradual destruction of democratic institutions, with the freedom of the press, a constitutional right under the First Amendment, as a primary target.
As in the Arab Spring, there is no recognizable spokesman. Though Trump is the President, who gushes out daily with "alternative facts" (meaning falsehoods), the White House staff spins what the Donald says. This is while the Cabinet reshapes those utterances in various forms. In the meantime, the civil service (two millions of them in various departments) ignores those directions, or at best, kills them by a deliberate slow motion.
In the midst of this chaotic American Spring, the masses (65% of the American public no longer trusts the man in the White House) use the weekends to fill the American equivalents of Tahrir Square. A movement which resists Trump's espousal of Putin's style of leadership, his Muslim ban, his wall at the Mexican border, his attacks on the judiciary, his non-divulgence of his taxes, and his assault on the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care).
There are variables between the American Spring and the Arab Spring. But they share in one primary quality: One does not know their final outcome. The fragmentation (in the Arab world, it is called "sectarianism") in America is the real "creative chaos" which Washington had used as descriptive of the attempts to effect change in the Middle East. However, in the American Spring, it is a constitutionally induced chaos. Here is why.
In the American Constitution, there is a "supremacy clause" -the Tenth Amendment. For its importance to understanding the American Spring, it merits quoting: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." So it was difficult for me, when lecturing at the Cairo University School of Law, the pearl of Arab legal education, to explain to my students that "the American federal government is a government of limited powers."
Here we have to bear in mind that the masses of the American Spring draw their power not only from "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" (The First Amendment to the Constitution). The practical source is the state which controls the police (not federalized in America), the education (controlled largely by local school boards), state legislatures, state taxation, state licensing of businesses and corporations, state election of non Article III judges. Huge powers. By contrast, the federal government, among other things, controls: foreign policy, foreign and interstate commerce, immigration, coinage of money, post offices, promotion of intellectual property, and war declarations.
This is a very broad and thus incomplete comparison between state powers and federal powers. But guess what? In the American Spring, stimulated by the election of Trump in consequence of this period of American rage, the State flags are flying high: The mayors of many cities and the governors of a dozen American states have ordered their police forces not to cooperate with the feds in certain activities; sanctuary cities are resisting Trump's draconian methods of deportation; Times Square (the new American Tahrir Square) is proclaiming "We Are All Muslims Too."
Allies of the masses in the American Spring are: the federal judiciary, the free press, the constitutional provisions on the separation between church and state, the civil service below the billionaires who now compose the cabinet, the on-going investigations in Russia's intervention in the American presidential elections.
Add to the above, the 17 American intelligence and security services about which Trump had frothed at the mouth in petulant anger. They, when confronted by a President about whom impeachment is already publicly discussed after only four weeks of his administration (called Trump Inc.) are opting for selective briefs to Trump. These are tailored to protect America from leaks to its adversaries.
In his book "The Art of Intelligence," Henry Crumpton who spent his life in the CIA's Clandestine Service, manifests the huge gulf between "The Art of Intelligence" and Trump's "The Art of the Deal!" Trump's "America Uber Alles" is relying on megaphones from Trump Towers. The masses are relying on resistance from the ground up.
Commenting upon the chaotic national scene in the Trump era, Daniel Gross sounded the alarm in the New Yorker magazine. Under the title of "The German National Anthem and 'America First'" he said: "Political language, when misused, can turn healthy patriotism into toxic nationalism." And the New York Times Magazine of February 12, festooned its cover with one word: RESIST.
NOTE: New blog postings will resume on a monthly basis until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
As in the Arab Spring, there is no recognizable spokesman. Though Trump is the President, who gushes out daily with "alternative facts" (meaning falsehoods), the White House staff spins what the Donald says. This is while the Cabinet reshapes those utterances in various forms. In the meantime, the civil service (two millions of them in various departments) ignores those directions, or at best, kills them by a deliberate slow motion.
In the midst of this chaotic American Spring, the masses (65% of the American public no longer trusts the man in the White House) use the weekends to fill the American equivalents of Tahrir Square. A movement which resists Trump's espousal of Putin's style of leadership, his Muslim ban, his wall at the Mexican border, his attacks on the judiciary, his non-divulgence of his taxes, and his assault on the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care).
There are variables between the American Spring and the Arab Spring. But they share in one primary quality: One does not know their final outcome. The fragmentation (in the Arab world, it is called "sectarianism") in America is the real "creative chaos" which Washington had used as descriptive of the attempts to effect change in the Middle East. However, in the American Spring, it is a constitutionally induced chaos. Here is why.
In the American Constitution, there is a "supremacy clause" -the Tenth Amendment. For its importance to understanding the American Spring, it merits quoting: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." So it was difficult for me, when lecturing at the Cairo University School of Law, the pearl of Arab legal education, to explain to my students that "the American federal government is a government of limited powers."
Here we have to bear in mind that the masses of the American Spring draw their power not only from "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" (The First Amendment to the Constitution). The practical source is the state which controls the police (not federalized in America), the education (controlled largely by local school boards), state legislatures, state taxation, state licensing of businesses and corporations, state election of non Article III judges. Huge powers. By contrast, the federal government, among other things, controls: foreign policy, foreign and interstate commerce, immigration, coinage of money, post offices, promotion of intellectual property, and war declarations.
This is a very broad and thus incomplete comparison between state powers and federal powers. But guess what? In the American Spring, stimulated by the election of Trump in consequence of this period of American rage, the State flags are flying high: The mayors of many cities and the governors of a dozen American states have ordered their police forces not to cooperate with the feds in certain activities; sanctuary cities are resisting Trump's draconian methods of deportation; Times Square (the new American Tahrir Square) is proclaiming "We Are All Muslims Too."
Allies of the masses in the American Spring are: the federal judiciary, the free press, the constitutional provisions on the separation between church and state, the civil service below the billionaires who now compose the cabinet, the on-going investigations in Russia's intervention in the American presidential elections.
Add to the above, the 17 American intelligence and security services about which Trump had frothed at the mouth in petulant anger. They, when confronted by a President about whom impeachment is already publicly discussed after only four weeks of his administration (called Trump Inc.) are opting for selective briefs to Trump. These are tailored to protect America from leaks to its adversaries.
In his book "The Art of Intelligence," Henry Crumpton who spent his life in the CIA's Clandestine Service, manifests the huge gulf between "The Art of Intelligence" and Trump's "The Art of the Deal!" Trump's "America Uber Alles" is relying on megaphones from Trump Towers. The masses are relying on resistance from the ground up.
Commenting upon the chaotic national scene in the Trump era, Daniel Gross sounded the alarm in the New Yorker magazine. Under the title of "The German National Anthem and 'America First'" he said: "Political language, when misused, can turn healthy patriotism into toxic nationalism." And the New York Times Magazine of February 12, festooned its cover with one word: RESIST.
NOTE: New blog postings will resume on a monthly basis until my new book is ready for the press this Fall. Its title: "War On Jihadism Ideologically: The New Islamic Religious Revolution"
Friday, January 20, 2017
Blog postings are for now suspended until further notice in 2017.
Blog postings are for now suspended until further notice in 2017. This is due to the fact of my authoring at present a book in English entitled, "War On Jihadism Through Ideology: The New Islamic Religious Revolution."
This book shall be dedicated Al-Azhar, Cairo Egypt.
Thank you for your attention.
This book shall be dedicated Al-Azhar, Cairo Egypt.
Thank you for your attention.
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