I'm sure most people know about the turmoil in Egypt as the military has started firing upon Muslim Brotherhood protesters, many of whom have been actively burning churches and persecuting Christians in the region. It seems like a shitfest on either side. I'm just wondering, what do you all think? How do you think this will be resolved and what effects will it have globally?

It's just horrible that the military are just going along with all of this. The tension between pro and anti Morsi factions within the govt and the civilian population has been cooking up for long time and I thought everything was gonna cool down. I guess it may have been inevitable. People have been wronged and they've been placed in a situation where they really cant trust the govt or military.

It's awful when we actually get to see the extent of harm that some people are willing to inflict on others just for the sake of money and power.

At this point, America is withholding financial support to Egypt under pretty reasonable grounds and it's not like Egypt didn't see this coming (read here: http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-h...9/SS-2-107902/)

This move maybe the best option right now but I can't help but feel that it's going to be counterproductive in the long run.

I don't think all of this will get resolved in a civil manner. Judging by the current situation, I think it's fair to assume that it's a bit too late. The people seem very determined and I don't think they will stop until they get the sort of govt administration that they feel they deserve.

My biggest concern is that because the democratic process has failed Egypt already, another election may be futile. The populace is too sharply divided.
It may be a long time before Egypt has a stable government, and it might not even be democratic.

Well, I'll say it for deprav before he gets here, USA has been pretty successful in destabilising the region, but I don't see how this benefits them.

By 'the region', do you mean Egypt or the entire middle east? Egypt is a central power in the Middle East. Since their peace treaty with Israel (70s), it's always been a 'close friend' of the US. The US has been supporting it with military power for 4 decades. The Egyptian military is mostly a US creation. Now, the sole reason for this support was peace with Israel. For these 4 decades, Egypt has had moderate presidents. Until 2012, when Morsi came. Nobody wanted to run the risk of Egypt turning into an extremist Islamic country. That's why it's been destabilised.

Why the US won't stop supporting the Egyptian government since their massacres: as said before, the US supports the Egyptian military. They send troops, and especially tanks, to Egypt. These weapons are all made by American companies like Lockheed Martin. Instead of sending Egypt the money, which Egypt would then in turn spend back on American weapon manufacturers, the US decided to skip that middle man and just order the weapons from the manufacturers themselves and then ship them off. Now here's the thing: only a part of the latest order has been delivered yet. Should the US cancel the order, they would be legally liable for the manufacturer's loss (I think this was somewhere about 4 billion dollars, but not too sure)

*Edit: Yea, it was about 4 billion dollars
Source: http://www.policymic.com/articles/59...itary-massacre

If you were talking about the whole Middle East as a region, I made lengthy thread about why America's been destabilising Arabic nations since the 90s, but since nobody posted in it, Siku closed it (and deleted it for some reason?!)

@ thellian. It's all pretty much down the toilet.

I'm interested in how this cut off and the civil unrest in general is going to affect their relationship with Israel and Syria. Egypt doesn't really have a solid loyalty record.

In return for that "aid" Egypt has cooperated with efforts in Gaza and they also gave intelligence to the U.S. concerning matters in Jordan and Syria.

If they move in a favorable and friendly direction towards their old buddies like Syria, What would the U.S. and Israel IAF do about it?

We know that Syria and North Korea are working together now, and after the failed c.p.a- Iraq and d.f.i. programs, China has benefited the most from Iraq's oil.

If the U.S. cuts the USAID, will Egypt resort to exporting more oil to China?

Tension is also starting to raise here in the Pacific Because countries with strong relations to the U.S. are constantly being provoked by China and NK with their blatant attempts to claim territories that are not theirs. I'm sure that if the conflict in the middle east deepens, all of us will eventually feel it's repercussions.

Fuck world politics and fuck that double sided peace treaty. I can agree with arglax about the whole "close friend" bit. It's pretty obvious that The U.S. just bought off Egypt because of it's economic and strategic value. Egypt didn't have a choice at that time because Israel slayed Egypt every chance they got. Sadat had no choice. he was basically given an offer that he could't refuse, then 2 years later fundamentalists shoot him down. Morsi himself is a fundamentalist so Israel is just going to watch Egypt burn to the ground while the U.S. sits beside them.


-dat friendship

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3536454.html

Destabilisation of Egypt in order to protect US economic interests is what I was referring to.

Yea, I have no idea what economic advantage America gets out of this. Usually the US destabilises a country because it's trying to sell oil for other currencies than the dollar. Actually, Egypt is a huge importer of crops and exports oil and gas to the US, so I don't really see the point of stopping that.

On the other hand, though, US pumps large amounts of money into Egypt's economy, so part of the profit they get from import/export is going into that too.

Us having no idea about how it benefits them doesn't mean it does not ;o

I don't think they're providing weapons and support to the egyptian military just for fun, or just to watch them slaughter their people. There is always profit behind a country's actions, we're in 2013 after all...

Maybe on the short term they want to get their hands on the oil companies and buy them back, maybe they want strategical points and multiply military bases in the area to pursue that "cold war" against Iran, but going through Syria first, or maybe they're making a gift to their buddy Israel etc... I have no clue.
One thing is sure, egyptian people and Democracie are getting fucked in the ass.

Exactly. As following with American customs: it definitely benefits them somehow. I can't think of the last time the US was indirectly involved a conflict and the planned outcome didn't benefit them. Probably because that has never happened yet.

I already pointed out why they support the Egyptian military with weapons. It's part of a deal made in the 1970s: Egypt would become the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel, the US supplies Egypt with American weapons and economical support.

This. Another reason why they chose Egypt: it's central. A powerful ally who is located in the centre of the heat is gold for the US. Besides, Egypt supplies America with intelligence on terrorism from all around the Middle East.