generalspeaking

Egypt on the Offensive/Defensive

Due to some niggling suspicion within official Egypt to the possibility that the Muslim Brotherhood might conceivably have been involved in the assassination of former Israel-peace-signing Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, his successor who assumed the mantle of president from that of vice-president decided that it might be a good idea to impose emergency law. To kind of tamp down the restive ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot militias.

Such a good idea that he decided to extend it. And so, throughout Hosni Mubarak's rule of 30 years, emergency law prevailed. When he was protested finally out of office, as reward for his dedicated decades of love of country, the state of emergency was miraculously lifted. Lifted, oh my goodness, just when the Muslim Brotherhood came into power, alongside a Brotherhood stalwart who became President of Egypt.

Mohammed Morsi and the Brotherhood would lift Egypt out of its trials and tribulations, and no need of any human-rights-defying emergency laws locking down the country. Alas, the experiment failed. The Muslim Brotherhood are once again persona non grata in the country of their origins, though they have widely dispersed, fact is, throughout the world; branches and chapters everywhere; quite so.

Removed by the powerful and alert Egyptian military at the beseeching behest of the Egyptian people; enough of them to convince leading General al-Sissi of the imperative of that removal, for President Morsi and the Brotherhood were steadily taking the country to political, social and economic collapse.

The Muslim Brotherhood's own experiment in ostensibly setting aside violence for the greater attraction of political manoeuvring is now called into question by its leading lights. Forswearing violence got them exactly nowhere. So they busied themselves revving up the reliable motor of popular dissent to keep the country's security agents busy trying to tamp down counter-demonstrations and the violence inevitably accompanying them. That was action in the cities.

And in Sinai, the Brotherhood alerted its Islamist cohorts Hamas and Islamic Jihad that it was time for the gloves to come off and the Kalashnikov A47s to come out and begin firing away. Also invited to the party were the Bedouin Salafists and any other discontented fundamentalist jihadis who prefer conflict to confab.

After failing in their central Cairo attempt to assassinate Egypt's Minister of the Interior, responsible for the police, another attempt by a pair of suicide bombers whose explosives-full cars succeeded in killing soldiers, took place in the northern Sinai peninsula, bringing the burgeoning civil conflict close to full-blown insurgency.

"The use of car bombs and suicide attacks is a new turn. This will not stop us, but will increase our determination to confront terrorism", said Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali. The suicide bombings ere evidently revenge in recognition of the military's Sinai offensive which the militants failed to appreciate with the destruction of their weapons and ammunition caches.

The Islamists are, of course, unsurprisingly in the Sinai which had become increasingly violent and lawless during Mohammed Morsi's understanding reign. Far more problematical was the attack within Cairo itself meant to target Interior Minister Gen. Mohammed Ibrahim's motorcade.

"The Interior Ministry, the slaughterer, has seen death with its own eyes from a martyrdom operation carried out by a lion of Egypt's lions", read a florid statement by Ansar Jerusalem. "What is coming will be worse." Giving due notice of what is yet to come. And in recognition of which Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi has announced an extension of the state of emergency while allowing that the curfew may be eased.

But the new administration is busy with other matters, not simply coping with a rising insurgency and the raw inconvenience of routing the attack plans of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist cohorts. Where the Brotherhood neglected the worldly affairs of the country in favour of transforming it into a theocracy, the government has announced new measures to ease the country's economic strictures.

New measures include relief for low income families for school expenses, reduction in public transit costs and a wholesale injection of $3.1-billion in budget support for infrastructure projects and stimulation of employment. To encourage hard-hit tourism in recovery, to invite foreign investment and stabilize the economy.

Egypt's dependence on a now-frowning American sponsor which may or may not decide to suspend annual assistance has been ameliorated by the Gulf States finally stepping forward to pledge to fund the struggling economy of Egypt to aid a fellow Mideast nation in the restoration of its equilibrium and help usher it into an advanced future.

The links between the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist terrorist groups appears fairly well understood. While administering the affairs of the country as its president, Mohammed Morsi struck an agreement that he would withdraw security and permit them to do as they would as long as they halted attacks on his government's offices and symbols. A truce allowing for the opportunity to stockpile weapons.
And the anti-aircraft missiles, mortars and RPG's along with additional weapons seized by the army, along with the ammunition that has been destroyed are all indications that the truce worked very well in the favour of the Islamists.  As long as the state of emergency is continued police will be permitted wider powers of arrest to meet ongoing security concerns.

Labels: Conflict, Economy, Egypt, Hamas, Islamists, Muslim Brotherhood, Security, Sinai

posted by Pieface @ Friday, September 13, 2013