Egypt: Morsi's 2 spokesmen quit

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By HAMZA HENDAWI

CAIRO (AP) - A foreign ministry official says two spokesmen for President Mohammed Morsi have quit in the latest defections from his embattled administration as protesters and the military challenge his authority.

The official says career diplomats Omar Amer and Ihab Fahmy have stepped down after nearly five months speaking on behalf of Morsi.

MORE on this breaking story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130702/DA79BB6O0.html

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Fireworks light the sky as opponents of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi protest outside the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, July 1, 2013. Egypt's powerful military warned on Monday it will intervene if the Islamist president doesn't "meet the people's demands," giving him and his opponents two days to reach an agreement in what it called a last chance. Hundreds of thousands of protesters massed for a second day calling on Mohammed Morsi to step down. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

[David__77]

1. Where do people think this is headed?

Will there be a military coup against the elected president? Or will he maintain his office?

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. Well, given that the opposition refuses to talk with him...

...there seems to be no way he can comply with the military's demands.

The question then becomes whether he goes quietly or whether he (and his supporters) put up a fight. That would pit whatever self-defense militias the Brotherhood can put together up against the organs of the Mubarek regime (the army, the police) and the liberal street fighters. That wouldn't end well. Maybe for the sake of the nation and it's own future political ambitions, the Brotherhood should just step aside for now. Give someone else the chance to try to manage the unmanageable.

It is supremely ironic, however, that the liberals are aligning themselves with the repressive apparatus of the Mubarek regime (the army, the police, the judiciary, the Interior Ministry). You know, the very undemocratic regime the people overthrew two years ago and the very undemocratic military interim government they forced from office a year ago.

This is not a good start to Egypt's experiment with democracy. Somebody might even call it mob rule, backed by tanks.

[David__77]

3. I think it makes sense that the liberals are aligned with the Mubarak forces.

This whole "Arab Spring" thing was a liberal mirage. People in the West for the most part were fooled into thinking that liberalism had any sort of attraction to any but a small urban elite among the Egyptians. Of course those parties would poll under 10%... Some of the Egyptian liberals fooled themselves too, and thought that any scenario in which they didn't win would of course be fraud.

Nasserism would have more appeal than liberalism. I personally would prefer to see a Nasser-style Arabism, with liberals trailing behind that leadership.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. It would be interesting to poll the multitudes in the streets.

What do they want, other than Morsi gone?

Equal rights for women?

Economic opportunity?

Public safety?

It's probably a misapprehension to believe that the multitudes are all about a progressive political agenda.

[David__77]

6. All those things, and more, and none.

Of course it depends. The demonstrators are a mix of old Mubarak/NDP supporters and liberals. People don't seem to realize it, but the old NDP did have real and significant support, and almost certainly got a majority vote without having to resort to outright fraud at the ballot box.

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. A new Nasser? I don't know who that would be.

I'm not an expert on the Egyptian military, but these guys seem more like the CEOs of Egyptian Military, Inc. and its network of enterprises than populist, nationalist hellraisers.