Letters To The Editor

Incompetent, corrupt junta

Mohammad Hawash

Ramadan 12, 14332012-08-01

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The military junta in Egypt is not only incompetent but also corrupt. They should not be in power.

The 1952 Egyptian military junta’s henchmen and inheritors are congenital liars, control freaks, incompetent managers and mischievous schemers. They have siphoned away Egypt’s meager resources, rigged elections, ruined its economy, and retarded its scientific and technological progress. They set up a brutal police state. They demoralized its people, created a pliant and corrupt judiciary, alienated neighbors and entangled the country in disastrous military adventures. The Egyptian army was soundly defeated in 1967. Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula. In the 1973 war, the army failed to recover occupied Egyptian territory. Egypt regained the Sinai, largely due to concessions made by President Jimmy Carter, and provided it remained demilitarized and capitulated to the Camp David Accords.

After Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, Tel Aviv allowed Cairo to send 750 lightly armed personnel to patrol the border between Egypt and Gaza. Later, Israel agreed to increase the number to 1,500. Thus, Egypt has partial sovereignty over the Sinai, due to the incompetence of its army.

Since the fall of Mubarak, SCAF and its lackeys have been waging a war of attrition against the few gains of the 2011 revolution. In June 2012, they got a “constitutional court” to order dissolution of the new freely elected parliament. They then assumed full legislative and executive powers. They could not rig the run-off presidential elections because this would have led to chaos in the streets. Dr. Mursi was declared president, though his job-description is yet to be defined. Thus the struggle for democracy will be long and arduous, since General Tantawi and the military junta are more skilful in political intrigue than in matters of defense.

Mohamad Hawash

Gimli, MB, Canada

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