The Egyptian mess plays out . . . well, the way it looked like it would

"Although the generals promised fresh elections, they gave no timetable."

-- from "Egyptian military ousts Morsi, suspends
Constitution," on washingtonpost.com

by Ken

Sometimes train wrecks catch most everyone by surprise, and sometimes they're there for everyone to watch unfold, powerless to avert the disaster. In an update to his post yesterday, Howie reported that the developments he reported seeming about the be developing seemed to be developing. The Muslim Brotherhood doesn't seem to accept that what has happened has happened -- namely that their bumbling incompetent president, Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first elected president, has been ousted from that office by the country's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which insists that it's not a "coup." What it is, says SCAF, is a "road map" to new elections, with one that leads places the ousted president doesn't seem to have seen the country going.

Of course it's a coup. What else could you call it?

The WaPo team of Abigail Hauslohner, William Booth, and Sharaf al-Hourani reports:

The abrupt conclusion of Morsi’s year-long tenure came in a televised address to the nation by the head of Egypt's armed forces, Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, early Wednesday evening. The move, he said, was aimed at resolving the country’s debilitating political crisis.

Sissi said that the country’s new constitution -- ratified under Morsi -- would be suspended and that the chief of Egypt's constitutional court will assume the presidency on an interim basis until the elections are held. Sissi said the interim president -- Adly Mansour, who assumed the position of the nation’s top judicial authority just three days ago -- will have the right to declare laws during the transitional period.

Without mentioning Morsi by name in his eight-minute speech, Sissi said the military had responded to the Egyptian people's demands in an act of "public service."

"The armed forces have tried in recent months, both directly and indirectly, to contain the internal situation and to foster national reconciliation between the political powers, including the presidency," Sissi said. But those efforts failed, he said. The president, he added, "responded with negativity in the final minutes."

The thing is, the general wasn't romancing when he said the military was responding to the Egyptian people's demands. On the whole, the mood in the streets seemed to be jubilant. Morsi, you'll recall, moved quickly and decisively to consolidate his and his party's power, but that seems to be the limit of his vision for his country. Of course Egypt's problems are immense and hideous, and would tax the competence of a leader who actually had the intellectual resources, gumption, and public support to try to tackle them. Alas, President Morsi wasn't any of those things.

On washingtonpost.com you could find a number of story blurbs of an obvious nature -- some true, others (despite their obviousness) not. "Ouster a setback for Islamist parties." Yes. "Egypt’s lost opportunity" (this is Fareed Zakaria). Well, duh. "Washington 'could stop' ouster, critics charge as Obama breaks silence." Idiotic bullshit. But then, our president can claim the distinction of having the stupidest, most dishonest, and most cynically opportunistic critics in, well, the history of critics.

Ironically, the military coup provides a reminder of where the ultimate power still lies in Egypt. I say "ironically" because the military seems genuinely not to have wanted to have had to do what it has done. After not quite a year of Morsi, large numbers of Egyptians figured out that this isn't what they wanted. Unfortunately, the chances don't seem great that they would support a leader who tried to deal seriously with the country's problems. On the remote chance that such a leader happened to turn up.

It's a happy day for people who like chaos and hopelessness, and possibly cynical opportunism as well. For everyone else, it's, well, a mess.

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