President Obama still does not understand Egypt
As Egypt takes twists and turns in the struggle for freedom, President Obama continues to be unable to come to grips with the facts on the ground. The media also continues to offer an analysis that is as simplistic as it is completely incorrect
Americans are being told that Egypt has “descended into violence.” Obama himself condemned the “cycle of violence” between the Egyptian military and the Muslim Brotherhood. He called on both parties to show restraint, conferring moral equivalence on a situation that requires nothing of the sort.
The cycle of violence seems like a harmless phrase, but it confer levels of culpability and responsibility in a manner that encourages aggression.
Not everything, to paraphrase Secretary of State John Kerry, is “nuanced.”
Sometimes life is black and white. There are good guys and bad guys, and trying to treat them as equals enrages and demoralizes the frustrated good guys and emboldens the bad guys.
The Egyptian military are the good guys. The Muslim Brotherhood are the bad guys.
The Brotherhood are radical Islamists determined to implement Sharia Law on the people of Egypt. The people do not want this, and took to the streets to beg the military to save them from this. While Brotherhood leader and President Mohammed Morsi was democratically elected, he ran under the false promise of pluralism. He broke his word to the people and was removed.
Violence then broke out, but it was instigated by supporters of the Brotherhood. The radical Islamists resorted to violence because they resort to violence. One does not need an advanced psychiatry degree to understand that murderers murder. This week alone the Egyptian Islamists murdered a number of Coptic Christians.
The Egyptian military is being accused of violence, but restoring law and order cannot be done by asking nicely. Too many world leaders have allowed Islamists to run wild, resulting in more aggression. The Egyptian military is one of the few institutions able…and more importantly willing…to crack down on the Islamists with enough force to deter their behavior.
A decade ago, world leaders had the will to defeat radical Islam. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar, and Australian Prime Minister John Howard all favored this muscular approach.
A decade later, there is not one world leader outside of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who speaks out against the threat of radical Islam. He is undermined at every turn by Obama and other world leaders who still believe that dialogue with determined killers can lead to lasting peace.
Islamists are fomenting violence and instability, and the Egyptian military is determined to suppress it.
The Egyptian military knows better.
Obama should know better.
He should know as a Christian that the Brotherhood would kill him for practicing his faith.
He should know as a father to two lovely daughters that the Brotherhood would stone his children to death for various forms of apostasy.
He should know as a passionate advocate for pre-school education that the Brotherhood would deny the right of his daughters to get educated.
He should know as a man who supports the rights of gays and lesbians that the Brotherhood murders them for sport.
He should know as a student of history that the Islamist history is a violent one that prefers waging war to keeping the peace.
He should know, but he does not. He does not allow his nuanced morally relative shades of gray world to allow for concepts of good and evil.
The Brotherhood is evil. The people of Egypt know this. The Egyptian military knows this. Obama does not know this.
He does not understand the Brotherhood. Until he does, he will never understand the situation in Egypt.
For the sake of allowing liberty and freedom to triumph over eternal darkness, he had better understand the situation soon.
The clock is ticking.
eric