There was even a smattering of sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood. Bloomberg News described its radicalization as a result of years of oppression, and the BBC did a sob story on how “deeply religious” many of its members are.
Oh, grow up.
Not all coups are equal, not all democracies are democratic. And “deeply religious” is not a virtue when secularists and other religions are fair game, as they were in Egypt for the last year.
Most important, pursuing America’s self-interest doesn’t mean we must be a slave to Robert’s Rules of Order. Although it’s pretty clear that Washington played no role and probably tried to stop it, the coup, at least for now, looks like a messy means to a better end for us. An Egypt run by the Muslim Brotherhood was not going to be a dependable ally, and it would have broken the peace treaty with Israel sooner or later. Then what?
As Michael Mukasey, the former federal judge and attorney general, wrote in another context: “The Constitution and US laws are not a treaty with the universe; they protect US citizens.”
So it is with our foreign policy. The first goal is to protect America’s security and interests. Everything else is second.
That formula explains why Mohammed Morsi’s election doesn’t trump other all other considerations. After all, Hamas won an election in Gaza, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won two elections in Iran. Hitler was elected, and so was Saddam Hussein.
Elections in police-state societies can be a step in the right direction, or they can be used as a blank check to further entrench power by a ruling elite aiming for dictatorial authority. Morsi was definitely in that camp.
His swift consolidation of power, including rewriting the constitution, came as many rivals were still getting organized after the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Some thought they could stall Morsi by boycotting the political process, but he viewed their absence as a plus, and made sharia the law of the land.
Even worse for many Egyptians in the short term, his government had, in a single year, shown itself to be incompetent or indifferent to their concerns. Crime was rampant, there were food and fuel shortages and electricity was cut for hours at a time. Tourists stayed away and unemployment soared.
The sense that their lives were getting worse, not better, led the vast majority of Egyptians to see the coup as a necessary step to putting the country back on course. They viewed the Muslim Brotherhood as hijacking their revolution and said they didn’t dump Mubarak only to replace him with another pharaoh.
Surprisingly, even President Obama seems to have realized that Morsi’s departure is no tragedy. Despite his hasty push to get Mubarak out and his awkward embrace of Morsi, his muted reaction so far suggests he is not rushing to the barricades of the democracy-above-all advocates.
Either that, or he wanted to get in some golf and boating over the holiday weekend before diving into the chaos. Ditto for Secretary of State John Kerry, who managed to go on his yacht two days in a row, despite dishonest initial State Department denials.
Come to think of it, both were following Vice President Joe Biden’s lead. He’s been on vacation, reportedly on the beach in Delaware, and didn’t hurry back to the White House.
That’s the spirit. Another week of silence from all three might be the best thing for Egypt and America.
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New York Post