Interesting events in Egypt. The elected government is overthrown by the army but according to the US it's not a coup! Not only that but the other great powers, the British government, the EU, etc., are pretty ambivalent about the whole thing.
Kinda odd, no? Only a year ago we had the (so-called) 'West' cheering on the greatest success of the Arab spring: an elected government in the Arab world's greatest country. A casual observer would imagine that it's overthrow would be universally condemned. But not so. Not only are the great powers entirely relaxed about current events but so is our compliant establishment media, with much commentary on the 'two sides' of the Egyptian problem. One side being the elected government and the other side being the middle class and the army. And that's odd too. The situation within Egypt itself. Here we have a protest movement (Tamarod) that brings hundreds of thousands of protestors onto the streets to protest against the elected government. All very fine. But instead of a popular movement overthrowing the government what we get is a military coup; which Tamarod now supports! But Tamarod claims to be fighting to preserve the Arab Spring; the revolution which overthrew the Egyptian regime. But what was the mainstay of that regime ... the army. So now the protestors are allied with the forces of reaction and their enemies are the Muslim Brotherhood which won the only free election in Egyptian history!
Like most modern news stories, the more you read in the papers or watch the news the less sense it all makes. But there are clues that join together to make a coherent story. First, the Tamarod in Egypt (supposedly the defenders of the recent Egyptian revolution) are solidly middle class and urban. They are allied with the army which is the bastion of reaction in Egypt and are supported by Saudi Arabia, the enemy of change and democracy in the Arab world. So we can forget the rhetoric about democracy and freedom in Egypt. The middle-class in Egypt, who did very well under the old regime, want a return to the old ways, but with a little bit less corruption and a better economy. Not democracy but stability, and to hell with the fellaheen peasants and Arab brotherhood . Secondly the US will support the coup. The first hint was the continuance of US so-called aid. In fact it is simply US subsidies for US arms firms to sell high tech equipment to the Egyptian army; so the F-16 sales will go ahead. Meanwhile the same Egyptian army has closed down the Egyptian border with Gaza. So now Egypt, the (centre of the Arab world) is collaborating with the Israeli blockade of Gaza, full of suffering fellow Arab civilians. Was this the objective of the Arab Spring? No wonder the US and the EU are quiet. More accurately, they are quietly confident. That things will return to the old status quo, with some minor superficial changes.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose ...
