Descent into Chaos

Last night Mark Levin devoted the entire show to the developing situation in Egypt. I was very gratified to hear him say that both Michael Ledeen and John R. Bolton would be guests, since I always resonate with their insights and respect their experience regarding the Middle East.

You can listen to the audio here by clicking on 01/28 . Show notes are here.

Some salient points

Mark thinks Mohammed El Baradei is the Muslim Brotherhood’s guy. “El Baradei can be put in and easily toppled. He’s an Iranian stooge. He turned a blind eye during the nuclear inspections. He is weak.”

The Egyptian army is with Mubarak but doesn’t like his son. And they can always join the revolution, although history shows that those who joined the revolution against the Shah were summarily killed by the Ayatollahs after the latter took control. It is unclear if the Egyptian army remembers this or not.

Jihadis are pouring into Egypt. Even if students and disgruntled workers are initially part of the opposition coalition, the Muslim Brotherhood – whose unofficial vatican is Al-Azhar University - will co-opt and turn it toward a fundamentalist shariah government.

“Iran is scared,” said Ledeen. “The wave of pro-democracy is overthrowing tyrants and they’re afraid they are next.” (Of course don’t expect to hear this kind of talk coming out of Iran. Expect expressions of approval and happiness.) He says this activity in Egypt cannot be divorced from the June 2009 Iranian uprising against the Ayatollah regime. But Iran is sending operatives to Lebanon and the Hezbollah takeover is controlled and backed by Iran.

Obama is not backing Mubarak. “Whoever wins he’s for it,” was the agreement between Ledeen and Levin. The President’s message, broadcast live during the segment of the show, was a message to the world that, as far as middle eastern leaders are concerned, everybody is on their own and the United States will not be helping them out. Ledeen quoted an unnamed Turkish leader of the past who said “The problem with having the Americans as an ally is you never know when they are going to turn around and stab themselves in the back.”

Update: Michael Ledeen’s take at his blog: Egypt: Revolution? By Whom? For What? Don’t miss it!

Andrew Bostom contacted Mark during the break and reminded him of an April 2007 article siting a survey that showed more than 2/3 of the Muslim youth in Egypt wanted strict shariah law.

Bolton: “I don’t think we have evidence yet that these demonstrations are necessarily about democracy. You know the old saying, ‘one person, one vote, one time.‘ The Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t care about democracy, if they get into power you’re not going to have free and fair elections either.” More…

John Bolton on the Situation in Egypt

The Egyptian army is digging in for a fight, and not against the people but against what Bolton calls the “shock troops of the Muslim Brotherhood” who are organizing the community to the latter’s detriment. Use the people to topple their government then enslave or oppress the people afterwards – it’s a common strategy throughout history. Bolton says that should Mubarak and his army fall it is the Brotherhood who will create the new government,  not the idealistic students.

This is not a call to Jeffersonian democracy but it is Mubarak v. the Muslim Brotherhood. Be sure to listen to the audio at the link above and don’t be sucked in thinking the people in Egypt just want to be free. There is much more to this than the biased AP and Reuters, infiltrated as they are with radical operatives, would have you believe.

Update:  Fyi here is a video of their unofficial pope Yusuf al-Qaradawi speaking about taking over Rome.