War & Peace

Muslim Brotherhood faces ban as Egypt rulers pile on pressure

"Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood risks political elimination, with the new army-backed government threatening to ban the Islamist organization after launching a fierce crackdown on its supporters that has killed hundreds. Struggling to stamp its authority on Egypt following the ousting last month of President Mohamed Mursi, the country's new rulers have upped the rhetoric, saying the Arab world's most populous nation is at war with terrorism. The crackdown has, however, drawn messages of support from key Arab allies like Saudi Arabia, which have long feared the spread of Brotherhood ideology to the Gulf monarchies." Continue reading →

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The Muslim Holy War Against The ‘Great Satan’

"Western imperialism and its terrorist puppet regimes in this vast region over two centuries have produced an immense, exploding cauldron of rage against the puppets and the imperialists. The people have returned to their Muslim roots to give them hope and strength to endure the terrible wars they must fight for decades to rid their ancient homelands of these imperialists. The U.S. is sinking into an immense cauldron of Holy War against a billion Muslims and is fighting them with mercenary troops who for the most part believe in nothing but their pay-checks and retirement perks. It may even take a century of terrible war, but the outcome seems obvious." Continue reading →

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The army pulled the trigger, but the West loaded the gun

"To focus on the actions of the security forces alone, on what they did with their trigger fingers yesterday, is to miss the bigger picture; it is to overlook the question of where the military regime got the moral authority to clamp down on its critics so violently in the name of preserving its undemocratic grip on power. It got it from the West, including from so-called Western liberals and human-rights activists. The moral ammunition for yesterday’s massacres was provided by the very politicians and campaigners now crying crocodile tears over the sight of hundreds of dead Egyptians." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe army pulled the trigger, but the West loaded the gun

Egypt’s Tragedy: Military Dictatorship Takes Shape on Nile

"It is as though the February 2011 overthrow never happened. Egypt is caught once again in a conflict that has raged for more than 60 years and has dominated the country since those eight bullets were fired on Nasser on Oct. 26, 1954, in a failed, and perhaps staged, coup attempt. At the time, Nasser banned the Brotherhood and imprisoned its leaders. In the ensuing decades, fear of the Islamists was used to justify the military's authoritarian control and the brutal tactics of the security services. In the end, however, the military created precisely what it had claimed it was preventing: even more radical Islamists." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEgypt’s Tragedy: Military Dictatorship Takes Shape on Nile

Washington frets over Saudi ties

"Saudi Arabia did not just pledge a combined US$12 billion in financial assistance, but it has also promised to make up for any Western aid that may be withheld as a result of the coup and the ongoing crackdown in which about 1,000 protesters are believed to have been killed to date. Perhaps even more worrisome to some experts in Washington has been the exceptionally tough language directed against Washington's own condemnation of the coup by top Saudi officials, including King Abdullah, who declared last week that '[t]he kingdom stands ... against all those who try to interfere with its domestic affairs' and charged that criticism of the army crackdown amounted to helping the 'terrorists'." Continue reading →

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Bipartisan calls to cut off Egyptian aid emerge after military crackdown

"Untangling the aid relationship with Cairo would not be simple and could be costly for the United States as well as Egypt. A special financing arrangement Cairo uses could leave U.S. taxpayers holding the bill for billions of dollars in equipment Egypt already has ordered on credit, and companies like Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics that build military hardware for Egypt would be affected by aid restrictions. Also on Sunday, several lawmakers made the point that the security of neighboring Israel and the Suez canal were compelling reasons in favor of continued aid. Since 1979, when Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel, it has been the second largest recipient, after Israel, of U.S. bilateral foreign aid." Continue reading →

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The Fascinating Interventionist Mindset

"It never considers the possibility of simply ending foreign aid entirely to Egypt and, for that matter, every other country. It’s as if the interventionist mindset is compelled to think only in terms of intervention on one side or the other. The thought of not intervening in any way doesn’t even enter the mental processes of the interventionists. Why not just leave Chile alone? Why not just leave Egypt alone? Why not just cancel foreign aid entirely, not only to brutal dictatorships but also to every other regime, especially during a time that federal expenditures continue to far exceed federal income? That’s a fascinating question. Unfortunately, it’s one that never enters the interventionist mindset." Continue reading →

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Six dead as thousands of Mursi supporters march in Egypt

"Thousands of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi marched through Cairo and cities across Egypt on Friday to demand his reinstatement, in the movement's biggest show of defiance since hundreds of protesters were killed two weeks ago. The army-backed government, which has shot dead hundreds of supporters of Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood since he was toppled by the military on July 3, had warned that forces posted at key intersections since morning would open fire if protests turned violent. The crackdown on Islamists has soured relations between Egypt and Qatar, a wealthy Gulf Arab state and U.S. ally that backed the Brotherhood and gave Egypt $7 billion during Mursi's administration." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSix dead as thousands of Mursi supporters march in Egypt

Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood Leaders Charged With Inciting Murder

"The authorities, who allege that Mr. Morsi stoked deadly clashes outside his palace in December, did not detail the evidence against him on Sunday. There is no public record of statements he may have made to incite violence. Since Mr. Morsi was deposed on July 3, setting off protest rallies and sit-ins across the country, the authorities have killed more than 1,000 of his supporters and jailed much of the Brotherhood’s senior leadership. The former president himself had been detained without formal charges since his overthrow. The developments on Sunday seemed to close off any chance for an imminent settlement to the standoff between the Islamists of the Brotherhood and the military." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMorsi and Muslim Brotherhood Leaders Charged With Inciting Murder

Obama Drone Attack Deaths versus Syria Chemical Weapon Deaths

"The actual number of drone deaths is at least 200 times the '22 top Al-Qaeda leaders plus Bin Laden' noted by President Obama. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) recently floated the number 4,700. Independent studies by both U.S. and British investigators have confirmed numbers in that ballpark, with many of those being 'collateral damage.' [..] More than 1,400 killed in Syrian chemical weapons attack, U.S. says." Continue reading →

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