Egypt, dusty with history, is facing change once again. My fear is a fundamentalist takeover reminiscent of Iran, or the success of Hez’bollah in Lebanon, or of Hamas in Gaza. I don’t want a ruling military junta, or a strong man who can seize control and throttle dissent. My transcendant hope is to see the rise of the business class, with the full support of the Army, as a free-trading, Parliamentarian form of government. Elise Cooper describes some of the Egyptian political interplay in the American Thinker.
I believe the best thing now for Egypt is patience. Our founders met in a tavern, and drank ale. Find your own way. Agree that you treasure free speech.Start your political campaigning now, form your parties and have some public meetings. Hold elections on schedule in September. Free trade is a lot better for the economy than a war, so choose a peaceful path forward.
History is on the march through the Middle East. This didn’t begin in Egypt, and it won’t be contained in Egypt. Jordan, Yemen, Syria and others may all be on the stage quite soon. When Ronald Reagan was sworn into office in January of 1981, and the hostages were finally released after their long captivity, who was forecasting that Democracy would be sweeping through Eastern Europe in a decade? Eastern Europe was largely able to transform itself into freer and more open nations, but Yugoslavia was a different story. It probably will take on some slightly different forms in neighboring states, but even while we fear for the worst of possible outcomes, it is practical to assume that something less than a dire, extremist shift will occur in Egypt. Egypt will continue, regardless of the actions of our President or his Secretary of State, or our obviously inadequate spy network in the Middle East.