A Koran and crossed swords in their logo, but we are told to believe the Muslim Brotherhood is secular and peaceloving?
The executive branch of the US Government is falling over itself to push Egypt’s President, Hosni Mubarak, out, and are assuring us that this will be a Good Thing for Egypt, for the US, and for the world as a whole.
Apparently we should ignore the fact that for almost 30 years, Mubarak has been a sensible force for good and moderation in the Middle East. He was the first leader in the region to make peace with Israel, he has resisted Muslim extremism, and he has no ambitions to become a nuclear power.
Yes, depending on how you choose to define such terms, he was probably also a despot and a dictator; but so too are many other of our allies (and our enemies) around the world.
Anyway, we are now being told that his downfall will be a Really Good Thing. It is becoming increasingly obvious that in holding such a view, our political leaders are flying in the face of common sense and the general sentiment of other friendly governments in the Middle East (of which there are precious few).
What of the immediate future in Egypt? It seems possible that Mubarak may be succeeded by a government headed by the ‘See No Evil’ ineffective former nuclear weapons inspector, Mohamed el Baradei – someone who did an excellent job of consistently refusing to acknowledge that either Iraq or subsequently Iran had any ambitions to become a nuclear power. His success at playing a game of ‘See no Evil’ was so great that he was jointly awarded a Nobel Peace prize, along with the organization he headed, the International Atomic Energy Agency, in 2005.
This of course puts him in the illustrious company of other visionaries such as our current President (awarded the 2009 Peace Prize, with his win being decided on almost his first day of office; he has yet to show any substantive accomplishment that could possibly retroactively support his win); the joint prize awarded in 2007 to the now almost completely discredited IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) riddled with scandals after putting forward bald faced lies as climate-change supporting ‘facts’, and Al Gore; or the 2002 winner, the ineffectual Jimmy Carter (perhaps his largest contribution to ‘peace’ was having the Iranian revolution occur on his watch).
But, I am digressing. Back to Egypt.
Notwithstanding the probable puppet presence of el Baradei, it is becoming uncomfortably and increasingly plain that the people pulling the strings will be the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that has publicly announced its implacable enmity to all things western (see more information on this organization here).
Or have they? Today, our Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, told a congressional hearing that while the Muslim Brotherhood may be nasty and bad in other countries, in Egypt they are peace-loving, largely secular, and really nice people. See the video clip here.
Expressions of astonishment have erupted all around the country and world. For just one such statement, here’s an NBC reporter, in Egypt, asking on camera ‘who on earth said that; it is totally wrong’.
So, here’s your choice. Who do you believe. Our nation’s Director of National Intelligence, who assures us the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood are really nice peace loving people? Or me?
I say they’re no more peace loving now than they ever have been in the past, and while they might move slowly to take over power in Egypt and to make it into another extremist Muslim state in the mold of, eg, Iran, that is their clear aim and objective.
Lastly, a question to ponder. If our DNI turns out to be completely wrong on this, two thoughts. First, why would he have made what seems to be, to the rest of us ‘ordinary folk’, such a ridiculous claim? Second, who will be held accountable and what consequences will they experience?
Update – just a few minutes later. There’s an amusing irony to this post.
I had written it in part because I was relying on testimony to the same congressional committee by CIA Director Leon Panetta, who had told the panel ‘There is a strong likelihood that Mubarak may step down this evening’ (see this news article).
Mubarak did not step down, quite the opposite. He reaffirmed his intention (at least for now) to remain in power until his term ends in September.
So our CIA’s director was completely wrong about his ‘strong likelihood’. Hmmmm.
Don’t understand why the NBC guy would risk his job like that. Apparently too busy meeting with genuine democracy activists (or with local leftists who would know the Muslim Brotherhood well enough to fear it) to have gotten the memo about kneejerk support for any counterfactual administration “testimony”.