Gen. Al-Sisi, the man behind all the bloodshed
[Black Star News Editorial]
It’s clear as daylight that Egypt’s best hope is for the military regime to restore the legitimately elected President Mohamed Morsi to office.
The military must then replace Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who launched the coup in July and work with President Morsi to create a government of national unity.
The next step would be a period for national reconciliation and finally work to improve the country’s constitution.
If the parties opposed to President Morsi had won Egypt’s first democratic elections they would never tolerate a coup by the army. How can the opposition parties even imagine that it would be otherwise for supporters of Morsi?
The prospect of quick reconciliation between Morsi and a new Egyptian army commander as the first step in the right direction may be overtaken if the ongoing violence continues. The bloodshed and chaos was initiated when the security forces massacred hundreds, possibly thousands, of Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi supporters.
Meanwhile coup leader Al-Sisi is hiding somewhere in the background. The carnage he’s unleashed, the mob control of Egypt that he’s encouraged by recently calling on civilians who oppose Morsi to take to the streets; his actions now makes former dictator Hosni Mubarak look like a Nobel Peace Prize candidate.
In truth Al-Sisi and some generals belong to the aging class of officers that lorded over Egypt with no accountability to civilians for decades. Now as they see their power, and lucrative multi-billion dollar businesses that came with it, erode under a civilian government the generals instigated a crises and have been promoting national enmity against Morsi and his followers. These are primarily still Mubarak-era officers hoping to first crush The Muslim Brotherhood before turning their attention on Morsi’s rivals.
If the army gets away with destroying a duly elected Brotherhood-backed government who believes it will ever yield to civilian authority under any political party, including those that have embraced the coup and repression?
Shame on the United States for coddling the military regime by failing to denounce the coup, or even calling it a coup, from the outset. The illusion of being impartial bystanders was abandoned when Secretary of State John Kerry claimed Gen. Al-Sisi and his cohorts were “restoring democracy” even though they had seized power illegally and precipitated a national crisis. The Kerry comments gave open blessing to the military regime and Gen. Al-Sisi the impression that he had U.S. greenlight for the massacres.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, mindful of his past restless army, has accused the Al-Sisi controlled regime of “committing state terrorism.“
Having been so closely identified with the violent crackdown and the promotion of violent vigilantism in Egypt, Gen. Al-Sisi is disqualified from being a part of any solution. Other more conciliatory generals must fire Al-Sisi and appoint a military council, or nominate his successor, who can then restore President Morsi. The U.S. should move much farther away from Al-Sisi.
The new military commander must address the nation and call for calm.
The new commander must make it clear that Egypt belongs to every citizen, whether they be supporters of The Brotherhood, political opponents, secular Muslims, as well as Christians. It makes no sense to denounce The Brotherhood as “terrorists” today when in fact the terror has been unleashed by Gen. Al-Sisi.
The new commander must make it clear that the security forces recognize Morsi as President and Commander in Chief and call for an end to all violence from all quarters.
All the political opposition leaders, and the religious and military commanders, can then appear together with President Morsi and call on supporters to halt violence.
Things are terribly grave in Egypt. Things will get much worse unless all parties agree to end the violence.
Egypt must be for all Egyptians.
