Obama and Hillary Get Snookered by Egypt’s Morsi
By Larry Johnson on November 23, 2012 at 9:20 PM in Current Affairs
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, Obama and team were celebrating the emergence of Egyptian President Morsi as a moderate willing to mediate the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Earlier fears that Morsi would arm and stoke Hamas faded as Morsi played the critical role in brokering the ceasefire. YEAAA!!!!!
Now comes today and, without warning, Morsi launches the equivalent of a coup and takes on the very kind of monopolized power once wielded by Hosni Mubara, our old buddy. See, when the dictatorship is under the control of Mubarak, it is bad. Very bad. But, when Morsi, assuming the same kind of powers that Mubarak had, becomes the current dictator, Obama and Hillary stare like deer in th headlights and say nothing. Must be good, right?
But the ink had barely dried on the international paeans before Egypt’s first democratically elected Islamist president made a domestic move replete with ideology.
In a presidential decree announced on state television Thursday afternoon, Morsi stipulated that any challenges to his decrees, laws and decisions were banned.
“The president can issue any decision or measure to protect the revolution,” said the decree, which further stipulated that, “The constitutional declarations, decisions and laws issued by the president are final and not subject to appeal.”
The decree also stated that no court could dissolve the country’s Constituent Assembly, which is drawing up a new Egyptian constitution.
The rewriting of the new constitution has been a controversial issue, with most non-Islamist members quitting the Constituent Assembly – including representatives of the Coptic Christian Church and the April 6 Youth Movement, which played an influential role in the 2011 ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak.
Reacting to the announcement, prominent Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei accused Morsi of usurping authority and becoming a “new pharaoh”.
So, how’s that Arab Spring working out?
United States is deluding itself to think it has any significant control over Morsi and his Government. Yep, we give him a lot of money. But, as Lenon and McCartney reminded us years ago, money can’t buy you love. Money can buy you sex, but that does not guarantee a genuine happy ending. I love watching Barack squirm
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