No mercy for Morsi
The need for the Egyptian military to remove Mohamad Morsi from his democratically elected role as President of the country is a tragedy for democracy in a region with a desperate need for an example of democratic success. From this perspective, Morsi has only himself and his senior Muslim Brotherhood handlers to blame.
With the economy faltering, businesses failing, and basic necessities not being managed or provided by the Morsi government, his primary goals seemed to be consolidating power, appointing only the more Islamist members of his party to major roles, expanding his own powers to exceed that of the judiciary, weakening expected Constitutional protections, not even bothering to create the appearance of an inclusive government, and referring to opposition parties as traitors, all while ignoring basic governance and the competence of his appointees.
There will no doubt be some who blame the U.S. for this calamitous failure of democracy, but there is no indication from this perspective that the Obama administration wanted this outcome or encouraged it. From all reports seen here, our ambassador to Egypt worked closely with Morsi(perhaps too closely) and others to encourage interaction between different factions, and at least in public the U.S. did not comment at all on the Morsi government's aggressive pressure on the Christian community or women's rights. Obama appeared to want more time to work things out to preserve the "will of the people", at least at the time of the vote. With the economy crumbling, my bet is that the U.S. thought that a cautious approach now and ultimately the carrot of more economic aid could force some reconciliation by Morsi with his varied opposition.
The Egyptian people could not wait. The military, a country unto itself, stepped in. They have suggested that they are not there to run the country but to maintain order and to oversee the implementation of a new constitution and new parliamentary and presidential elections in the coming six months, maybe an optimistic target. If that happens, there is a chance that something can be salvaged from this mess. If not, who knows. Certainly not this less than completely informed writer from afar.
With the economy faltering, businesses failing, and basic necessities not being managed or provided by the Morsi government, his primary goals seemed to be consolidating power, appointing only the more Islamist members of his party to major roles, expanding his own powers to exceed that of the judiciary, weakening expected Constitutional protections, not even bothering to create the appearance of an inclusive government, and referring to opposition parties as traitors, all while ignoring basic governance and the competence of his appointees.
There will no doubt be some who blame the U.S. for this calamitous failure of democracy, but there is no indication from this perspective that the Obama administration wanted this outcome or encouraged it. From all reports seen here, our ambassador to Egypt worked closely with Morsi(perhaps too closely) and others to encourage interaction between different factions, and at least in public the U.S. did not comment at all on the Morsi government's aggressive pressure on the Christian community or women's rights. Obama appeared to want more time to work things out to preserve the "will of the people", at least at the time of the vote. With the economy crumbling, my bet is that the U.S. thought that a cautious approach now and ultimately the carrot of more economic aid could force some reconciliation by Morsi with his varied opposition.
The Egyptian people could not wait. The military, a country unto itself, stepped in. They have suggested that they are not there to run the country but to maintain order and to oversee the implementation of a new constitution and new parliamentary and presidential elections in the coming six months, maybe an optimistic target. If that happens, there is a chance that something can be salvaged from this mess. If not, who knows. Certainly not this less than completely informed writer from afar.
posted by John Borden at 6:12 PM
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