Essay: Sightings of the Egyptian deep state

I have a new essay up at MERIP, looking at the recent clashes in central Cairo and looking into what many people have wondered over the last few months: is the Egyptian military really this out of control, or is something else going on? It's an attempt to piece together a puzzle without having all the elements, thinking through what SCAF is and what it isn't, what security agencies it depends on, and who are the power brokers of the new Egypt.

Read it here: Sightings of the Egyptian Deep State | Middle East Research and Information Project

Comments

[Warren Metzler]

I would recommend not assuming that people can actually pursue long range plans, especially when those plans are based on an unnatural way of living; such as a military controlling the operation of a country. I suggest that the SCAF is run by people who know they don't have a clue what they are doing, reacting to each day's events out of their state of mind that day, which can often be quite dissimilar to their state of mind the previous day; and because they are operating what they each inwardly know is inappropriate political control over their country, the longer they do this, the most insane will become their thinking, which will cause their actions to become increasingly absurd. Each movement in that direction lessening the number of the public willing to tolerate their current level of power.

I present this assessment not because I have clairvoyant knowledge of them, but because I know a lot about how all humans functions. A state always functions within the context set up by the individual mind-sets (maps for life) of the majority of its citizens; have most of them change their minds and soon the state will change. So there is no need to worry about the MB and the islamists having political power. Because once in control they will soon demonstrate how incapable they are of governing, and out they will go in future elections. It is contrary to nature for any government to have any religion control its laws and institutions; and the 1st Amendment of the American Constitution (which prohibits a state religion) is one of the reasons it became the great country it has been.

I further propose, that the Arab Spring movements are manifestations of the fact that every human in the world now intrinsically knows that he or she is to pursue becoming his or her optimal potential. And less and less citizens of countries in the world will tolerate any dictatorship: political, religious, cultural.

So have patience. The world is progressively becoming a better place, and it won't be too long (maybe years, but not decades) before Egypt will be a major world center with a vibrant life for most.