Colonel Ralph Peters appeared on Fox News, yesterday with Martha McCallum to give his analysis of the situation in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama Administration's foreign policy.His compliment to the Regime for their somewhat "wishy-washy" and "tepid" response to the violence, turns out to have been premature. In an oped in The NY Post, today, Peters decried John Kerry for painting the Muslim Brotherhood extremists as victims. In full outrage mode, America's most famous windsurfer castigated the Egyptian authorities, insisting that the Muslim Brotherhood had a right to "peaceful protests." Apparently, "peaceful" means armed with Kalashnikovs, killing policemen, kidnapping and torturing opponents, turning mosques into prisons, attacking Christians and burning Coptic churches. The Brotherhood protesters rejected all offers of compromise and all demands to disperse. The interim government's response was heavy-handed, but the Muslim Brothers chose violent resistance — using women and children as shields (a tactic typical of Islamist terrorists). Do we really need to have sympathy for the devil? *** But all you have to do to create witless panic in Washington is cry "Military coup!" Well, sometimes — regrettably — a military is all that stands between a population and deadly (and anti-American) fanaticism. Despite yesterday's bloodshed, would we really prefer a return to Brotherhood rule? Stuff the political correctness and get real. Is the Egyptian military an ideal ally? Nope. But it's a far better bet than Obama's support of the Muslim Brotherhood turned out to be. The danger now is that the administration and naïfs in Congress will cut aid to the Egyptian military and curl up into a snit. That would only make the Egyptians who want a reasonably free, generally tolerant and ultimately democratic Egypt even madder at us. And Egypt's the most important Arab country. Do we really need to make additional enemies in the region? Of moderates and secularists? In a quest to be "fair" to fanatics? Official figures allow 275 dead in yesterday's violence, while the Muslim Brotherhood claims more than 2,000. The latter number's preposterous — you can't hide that many corpses from prying journalists — but the reality is probably somewhere in between. Regrettable? Yes. Inevitable? Also yes, thanks to the Brotherhood's intolerance and intransigence. It's time to get over ourselves. Our narcissistic belief that we not only can, but must, decide the destinies of Middle Eastern populations is destructive. We can, at times, play constructively on the margins, but we're not even good at that. The Obama administration needs a new foreign-policy motto: "First, do no harm." Since that oped went to print, the president took some time away from golf at Martha's Vineyard, to comment on the situation in Egypt. As would be expected, the Regime is not taking Peters' advice. The president announced the cancellation of biannual joint military exercises between U.S. and Egyptian forces: "Our traditional cooperation cannot continue," he said. The president also said that his national security advisers would continue to study the implications of the violence, and recommend additional steps "as necessary." He did not mention any potential cuts to aid to Egypt, which some members of Congress have suggested but which are opposed both by the Pentagon and Israel, as such aid is linked to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, and stopping terror in the Sinai peninsula. We are not being told the truth about what is happening in Egypt, according to former Muslim Brotherhood member, now peace activist, Walid Shoebat. When it comes to the recent deaths in Egypt, the western media narrative has already been set: Innocent, unarmed Muslim Brotherhood supporters and members are being gunned down in the streets and brutally beaten by police who just do it because they can. The Muslim Brotherhood supporters are repressed and persecuted victims. That's propaganda; it's not journalism. He linked to a report in Al-Seyassah (translation): The Brotherhood -- along with their allies, gunmen and militia -- took to the streets in various provinces to attack vital installations, security centers and public utilities. At least four churches were burned. In Cairo, war broke out in the streets between the police and the militiamen of the Brotherhood, who burned police cars and blocked a number of main streets, including street League of Arab States south of the capital, and fired heavily on the security forces, who responded with tear gas canisters. In Helwan, south of Cairo, Morsi supporters set fire to a police station after they surrounded it and released all of its detainees. Helwan metro station was trashed after being invaded by a large number of these supporters.

• published: 14 Nov 2013
• views: 6