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Guest Post: Boots On The Ground In Egypt: Trading One Dictator For Another
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man
Boots On The Ground In Egypt: Trading One Dictator For Another
Revolution. It’s a funny word when you think about it. In political terms, ‘revolution’ conjures images of heroes battling tyrants, of all-out forcible insurrection in the name of freedom and change.
From a celestial perspective, however, ‘revolution’ denotes one complete orbit of a planetary body around its center, as in the earth’s revolution around the sun. In other words, after a revolution, you end up right back where you started.
Same word, two completely different meanings– on one hand you have change, and on the other you have more of the same. This is exactly what has happened after Egypt’s revolution this year.
Sure, Hosni Mubarak is now standing trial after 3-decades of looting and pillaging his country’s wealth. For most Egyptians, this is viewed as a major victory; there is a feeling of intense optimism here on the streets of Cairo, and even though nothing is fundamentally different, expectations are high.
Mubarak was a symbol of tyranny, and a great deal of blood was shed to topple his regime. Unfortunately, Egyptians have essentially replaced one form of dictatorship with another.
There is now one person in charge of Egypt– military Supreme Commander Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. Tantawi was Mubarak’s Minister of Defense, and as the man in charge of roughly one million soldiers, sailors, and airmen in a country with no political system, Tantawi has absolute authority.
He’s not shy about using it either. Just ask any of the thousands of Egyptians who have been tried and sentenced by despotic military tribunals over the last several months.
Many of these ‘criminals’ were bloggers like Maikel Nabil Sanad– found guilty of insulting the Egyptian military establishment. Sanad is currently serving a three-year sentence after a rubber-stamp tribunal convicted him five months ago. Several other bloggers and public figures have been jailed or detained as well.
Despite all the song and dance about freedom in Egypt, their revolution has brought them right back to where they started– an autocratic dictatorship.
When you think about it, this is how things usually work out in politics. How many people have campaigned on the ‘change’ platform, only to end up following the same path as the last guy? As the saying goes, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same.’
Egypt is due to hold parliamentary elections in a few months’ time. It’s questionable whether Tantawi will give up his supreme, unchecked power… but whatever happens, one thing is clear: a new power elite will emerge in Egypt that helps itself to wealth and privilege at the expense of everyone else.
This is the great weakness in any political system: ‘government’ is based on the idea that some individual or organization is awarded power than no human being should possess– the power to kill, to declare war, to steal, to defraud, to counterfeit.
All of these powers are considered immoral by man, but perfectly acceptable for government… and no matter how much they dress it up as being good for the people, any political system makes full use of its authority in order to maintain the status quo and keep the ruling elite in power.
Egypt underscores an important lesson from history: with rare exception, even when you topple the ruling elite, someone else will simply step up to fill the void… just as the French traded Louis XVI for Maximilien Robespierre’s Reign of Terror in the 1790s.
This is why advocating for political change, while virtuous and noble in deed, is ultimately a wasted effort. Power-hungry megalomaniacs and their sycophantic yes-men will always rise to the top, conning the masses along the way that ‘change is coming’. It’s all a big snow job.
Bottom line- politicians are in it for their own benefit, not for yours. We only have a finite amount of resources available– time, money, and energy. It’s far better to allocate those resources to improving your own situation rather than some politician’s chances of reelection.
It’s time to invest in yourself– build a pool of savings, develop alternate sources of income, diversify internationally… and most of all, have a plan. You don’t want to be caught flat-footed when these sociopaths drive the bus off the cliff.
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it's called a junta
Amr Moussa interview on BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0148zk5/HARDtalk_Amr_Moussa_Secret...
or this link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0148zk5
or if they don't work this one will (audio only)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00jw6mv
Moussa is a scumbag (but make up your own mind after watching this interview)
meanwhile thousands of protesters from the spring remain in prison and are being tried in military court
http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/1/64/19995/Egypt/Politics-/Egy...
Bottom Line- Chaos all around. Status Quo to the rescue.
I need to find that Henry Miller quotation. Something like: "I'm against revolutions cause they invovle a return to the status quo."
Coming to a country near you, soon.
Egypt revolted because they wanted more welfare; more jobs, more benefits and more free money and from a regime that could not supply it during the credit crunch. The new rulers came to power on a mandate that could not be fulfilled because it promised more in war than Mubarak could provide in peace time. This ends badly either way with a mass slaughter of its supporters by governments various or a new nationalist war with someone else because no matter how many times they revolt there is simply no way that any new ruler can provide what the masses want, more benefits.
The best way to resolve this problem of a government that can't feed its people is simply to march them over a border where they will either get shot or get fed. Either way the problem resolves itself, eventually.
It's just that this problem involves around 7.5 billion people now, or should I say around 5 times as many people as the start of WWII. Who will you be voting for?
This is the great weakness in any political system: ‘government’ is based on the idea that some individual or organization is awarded power than no human being should possess– the power to kill, to declare war, to steal, to defraud, to counterfeit.
Well yeah, except that (most of) this is the original basis for the social contract: cede certain authorities to the state (in these areas specifically) to avoid the ceaseless tit-for-tat blood feuds that were a constant part of the human condition in a pre-civilization "state of nature".
The Amish don't fight and they are completely self-sustaining. Perhaps it has something to do with Christianity (the real Christianity - as in "love your neighbour as yourself").
They also exist solely within the borders of a country governed by the U.S. Constitution which *so far* has been the best and most enduring means of keeping the necessary evils of government authority in check. Actually I think there are some in Canada too but that whole country argubaly benefits likewise from same.
In fact, I left USA two years ago and moved to Canada to be close to a large Mennonite (think "Amish") population. It reminds me of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.
the only thing surprising about any of this is that a growing number of people are figuring out the game that United States and its allies are playing... trading one set of puppet dictators for a new set, while pretending the change is gov. reflects the will of the people...
No. US citizens for some of them are more open to the admittance of this game in the US world order for one reason and one reason only: they are slowly slipping out of the US world order benefits.
While they were unubiquitously on the right side of the US world order, well, telling that the US and its allies were the best chums to dictators accross the world was received as fantasy, a tale spread by US haters.
Now that the US world order is no longer that good for some US citizens, the gang law is obsolete: one can speak more openly about the former and ungrateful gang and their manners.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp6-wG5LLqE
...George Washington was unique!
My dog is also unique.
EVERYBODY IS UNIQUE!!! JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ESLE!
Sure he was, the first Gay freemason General to become the illegal, non-resident president of the UNITED STATES CORPORATION.
Rather Unique, he was.
V
HEY AMERICA!!!
He was a citizen at the time of the drafting of the Constitution.
Try this. It's a rabbit hole, deep one.
http://www.edrivera.com/?page_id=2
He had not fulfilled the mandated 14 year residency rule at his first oath-taking. And of course there is a lot more to it.
V
George Washington was an Englishman born in an English colony descended from a long line of Englishmen of minor noble but still aristocratic blood. America was an English country and the United States of America were implicitly English despite political tensions that rendered such an identification impossible. To question Washington's "citizenship", even as a bizarre joke about Obama's status, is absurd.
I ought to know. My ancestors came over on Mayflower. Some of them remained Loyalists and were forced to flee to Canada to save their lives (just ask the ghost of one grandfather killed at Saratoga for his "King and Country").
So loud mouth, please go back to your jungle cubicle, produce more craptastic C++ for your Imperial Masters, and leave America to those of us with actual skin -- and blood -- in the American game.
We never asked your opinion and we sure as hell don't want you stinking up the joint any more. Hell, you were never invited in the first place.
Josey Montana @17:00,
No, the one's BORN here were Americans, and they far outnumbered the English that came first.
English were not shooting English for the most part in The Revolucion.
FUCK YOU ASSHOLE. Stay in your own fucking country and talk out your ass all you want. You have no business here, AT ALL.
Chill out JohnG. I hold all leaders in equal contempt, as should you.
And perhaps you need a grasp on some true history.
http://www.edrivera.com/?page_id=2
Don't thank me.
V
Don't you need to get back to work:
http://www.vidmax.com/video/58301/Being_An_India_Sewer_Cleaner_Is_Probab...
Tch....truth is so bitter for a donut eater.
V
Hang in there, ORI ... as Jack Nicholson would say: "They can't handle the truth!"
... and even if GW was doing the right thing in 1776 by replacing the Articles of Confederation with a Constitution and a ready-to-be-expanded federal government ("Don't worry, honey: I'll only put the end in!") ... Johnson was certainly not doing the right thing in 1868 when the Constitution and Bill of Rights were effectively rescinded by the 14th Amendment (which subordinated the previoulsy sovereign states to the illegal/foreign state of Washington, DC ... and was opposed by the majority of those states!).
You need to stay low dude. America's love affair with India is over.
Asshole.
This is the great weakness in any political system: ‘government’ is based on the idea that some individual or organization is awarded power than no human being should possess– the power to kill, to declare war, to steal, to defraud, to counterfeit.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Laughable. Previous social orders used to acknowledge the same prerogatives to individuals. It is only with the rise of US citizenism, the US world order conveying their hate for individuality and their undying love for anything group that all this prerogatives were deemed too good to be shared on an individual basis and had to be the priviledges of a select group.
In US citizenism, group is all. Individuality does not exist. So that is what one gets.
You know, you're constantly wanking on about the dreadfulness of the US, as if this is some kind of useful, constructive advice on how to proceed from where we find ourselves.
Judging by your writing, you're clearly not a native English speaker. As you never offer constructive observations, perhaps you'd like to declare where you're writing from, as the implication is that your own people and political system are blameless and the rest of us should follow your example. All right - what is your example?
He's failed the US citizenship test like eight or nine times now...lol.
Proper english for what? Broken english is the lingua franca.
Constructive comments? But this is censorship.
US citizens and their cheap propaganda.
Calling for constructive solutions for whom? Assessment of what a constructive answer is is tricky and a game of power.
My comments bring a lot though. How? because they focus on facts, they aim at facts.
They dont spread propaganda as US citizens love so much. US citizens have built up a fantasy land to avoid facing they are the root of the issues in this US world order.
The US is not the solution, the US is the problem. A little fact US citizens can not admit.
So indeed telling it and recalling it again and again can be deemed constructive.
That's why people need to understand true principles. Not monetarist dogma.
You see Simon that is what is consistent across all these failed uprisings in recent history. The people didn't KNOW what to replace things with,and the replacement went with his own form of monetarism.
If the people KNOW they need a real economy, based on universal principles, not monetarist dogma, then they can get the change they desire.
That's what happened here in the U.S....they KNEW what they wanted to replace things with. We know now too. Just too many people still have their heads clouded by monetarism...and don't understand the difference that is inherent between monetarism and American Credit system. Once people are on board with rejecting all forms of monetarism, they'll be ready to prevail under most circumstances.
When principles for which people revolt are based on real things...Universal principles, and not sophistry, monetarism, or Aristotle bullshit, then America can again shake the world positively.
Glass-Steagall (the anti-monetarist policy)
So, you're saying it's savers vs debtors? That's what this guy thinks too http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2010/07/debtors-and-savers.html
Interesting interpretation... but I still think it's the elites vs. the non-elites, at least for more recent American history. Monetary issues for the latter half of the 19th century was about the silver standard, bi-metalism and finally the Cross of Gold. Basically the debtors (farmers) vs. the savors (east coast bankers). Farmers liked inflationary policies since their crops would be worth more and the loans they took out to plant with less at the time of repayment. For the bankers it was the opposite, and actually encouraged deflationary policies so the money they were repaid with was worth as much or more than when they lent it out, and depressed the prices of commodities as they became avaialble on an annual cycle.
Enter FDR and his populist, progressive policies. After the Business Plot failed the bankers had to learn to love leverage when the gold standard was dismantled and here we are today. There will always be both debtors and savers of all socioeconomic classes, and the elites will always be strategizing to find windfalls to exploit the consent of the governed.
I think it is fascinating how the Egyptians trust their army, how that defeated their cause before it started. Then there is Libya that appears to now be a democracy where the army has been replaced and is despised.
Benevolent dictator is the best form of government, problem is finding one.
If this is true, be sure that this person would be the most wanted person in this US driven world.
hmmm this all sounds so terribly familiar, there was a certain congressman that was saying this EXACT same thing, his name escapes me....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmJ6I1Xv1F4
Jimmy Carter or Sleepy from Disney World?
You make the call...............
was it a revolution
.
or are people just hungry for a voice
.
so they can have a revolution
That's the whole point isn't it. if the chief leaves on his own, then the status quo has teh chance to appoint the replacement, benefit, status quo. if violence breaks out, then it doesn't always have that chance. You really think Obama wanted a real democracy there. think again.
Anyone who thinks that the so-called 'Arab Spring' will result in even one single, benign liberal democracy in the ME or NA is a deluded fool who has no understanding of how the ME and NA works.
It will never, ever happen. They are reprimitivizing, going in the opposite direction.
They are being reprimitivized.
V
I guess Spring is over.
A cap of lead across the sky
Was tight and surly drawn,
We could not find the Mighty Face,
The figure was withdrawn.
A chill came up as from a shaft,
Our noon became a well,
A thunder storm combines the charms
Of Winter and of Hell.
"When you think about it, this is how things usually work out in politics."
Specially in countries very much infiltrated by US economic/military interests.
"It’s time to invest in yourself– build a pool of savings, develop alternate sources of income, diversify internationally… and most of all, have a plan. You don’t want to be caught flat-footed when these sociopaths drive the bus off the cliff."
Yes, everything for the individual. Let's not even try to harness the power of the collective. You know, divided you'll win. Yeah, same as war is peace and ignorance is strength...
It was Victor Hugo I believe who said something like "Everything one can do only for himself will always be a small feat."
Humans are gregarious by nature, you just can't go against that.
Wonder why we take KGOOFY out, and give it, AND help the RADICAL SHARIA Islamists take over Lybia?
YOU Know they gonna SELL oil to the great SATAN.
What's the end goal here?. The way I see it, USA 0/ Radical ISLAM 100.
They have to sell their oil, whoever's in charge, but there's no such thing as 'radical' Islam. You're better off saying "Islam 100". There is only Islam, nothing more. 'Radical Islam' is a figment of The West's imagination. Those described as 'extremists' are perfectly normal muslims going about perfectly normal Islamic business, which involves waging war against infidels - forever, or until Islam dominates. They are practicing Islam as it was intended. They are doing nothing extreme. Those described as 'moderates' - they are the marginalised ones, the peripheral muslims, who have no influence at all over the 'extremists'. Islamic doctrine gives all the power and legitimacy to the 'extremists'. Islamic doctrine says only 'extremists' are true muslims. They are the ones in the driving seat globally, and always will be.
Dictators. Meh.
Park a Carrier Battle Group offshore and that will keep Dictator from getting too uppity.
We have been fighting Dictators since Commodore Perry went over towards Tripoli to ensure our free commerce without costly tributes to some sand head.
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