From Friday: Egypt has been warned of the violence to come – by General Sisi himself

[muriel_volestrangler]

This was published Friday afternoon, Egyptian time, and seems on the money:

The general's recent speech can only be read as a precursor to a bloody campaign of repression against the Egyptian people

Since the coup it has emerged that the leaders of the armed forces had been meeting regularly with key opposition figures in the months before; that leading Mubarak-appointees on the constitutional court were involved; that financing and logistical support for the "grassroots" movement against Mohamed Morsi came from the opposition's Naguib Sawiris; that the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia provided aid that promptly materialised upon the ouster of Morsi; that Mohamed ElBaradei, leader of the National Salvation Front, had sought the support of western governments; and that US secretary of defence Chuck Hagel was in contact with Sisi in the days leading up to the coup.

We have also witnessed the miraculous disappearance overnight of fuel and electricity shortages, the equally miraculous return of law enforcement to the streets, and the emergence of key Mubarak regime figures, now representing roughly a third of the interim cabinet.

It has also become clear that the key to the entire affair – the participation of "millions" in anti-Morsi protests – is at best an exaggeration and at worst a piece of cinematic production involving the collaboration of an Egyptian movie director and military aerial photography. In contrast to the 18 days it took the army to step in in 2011, Sisi in this case issued an ultimatum on the first day of protests and followed through with the coup three days later.
...
The end game is not very difficult to see. Sisi has already given the world a taste of what he is willing to do when officers opened fire on peaceful protesters during morning prayers. There were at least 50 dead on the spot, possibly as many as a 100 in total.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/26/egypt-general-sisi-warned-violence

[cali]

1. it's becoming clearer and clearer that this is a classic military coup

the results? either a return to strongman tyranny/dictatorship or a civil war. the first being more likely than the second.

[Scootaloo]

2. I disagree

I don't think that the people who faced down Mubarak are going to knuckle under for this fucker.

Egypt's going to get very ugly. And remember. Your tax dollars and mine paid for it.

[Igel]

3. I'm not sure the MB will.

Not sure about the "liberals."

A British series calling "Being Human" (about a ghost, a vampire, and a werewolf who were flatmates) had in season 4 a planned take-over of the world by vampires. The "old ones" were going to conquer Britain--then the rest of the world--by force majeure.

One young, hip, marketing savvy vampire objected to the plans and said that there was a better way. He was mocked, "What, the humans are just going to let us rule them?"

The marketing guru said, in effect, Yes. "Create a context in which it's the better choice."

It's simple. The Army has created, with the liberals, a context in which the Army is the better choice. The liberals are content for now because their political enemy is being attacked and they've all but been promised power.

The liberals will find that power depends on the agreement of the Army. But from their perspective, there will be less repression. A strong-arm dictator is never repressive when he's *your* strong-arm dictator, and while Mubarak, as dictators go, wasn't the worst, there's till room for the liberals to be fairly vigorous in their control--now with justification and even support because of that context the Army created--and still be a bit better. At least to their supporters.

The liberals are "liberal"; they are young; they are tech-savvy. A lot pf people assume, therefore, that they are in favor of democracy. When they say "democracy" has to be more than just simple majoritarianism, that sounds good. However, I suspect that it will be "consensus" on their terms, and compromise will be offering the MB and political opponents things that the liberals can tolerate and which the liberals think should shut up their opponents.

"Liberal" is a word that need to be defined country by country. In the USSR, liberals were free-marketers. In Egypt ... We'll see.