Egypt’s Transition to SCAF Has US Support

America’s political leaders constantly point to Egypt with pride, as a self-congratulatory example of how they are on the side of democracy and the Arab Spring. Hidden from the stump speeches for a miserably ignorant American public was how the U.S. supported the dictator Hosni Mubarak for decades, and continued that support despite Arab Spring protests, and continued that support even further while Mubarak’s security forces brutally cracked down on thousands of civilians, killing at least 900 of them. It was only after it was clear Mubarak would be ousted, that Obama sided – at least rhetorically – with the people and asked for Mubarak to step down. That is the establishment’s claim to fame here. That one decision to ask for Mubarak to step down.Of course, the very next move was to advocate and push for the preservation of as much of the Mubarak regime as they could. The close military relationship between the U.S. and Egypt/SCAF is not lost on the people, either.

And now, as I have been writing about for months, U.S. support of  Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is, as per usual, on the side of tyranny and opposed to the freedom and rights of the Egyptian people. Military and security forces are continuing to use violence towards protesters angry with SCAF for serving as an impediment to democratic governance. On Sunday, security forces killed at least two protesters and injured 11 others at a demonstration in Damietta (via Issandr El Amrani). Record numbers of people are being detained by security forces, and subjected to military trials (10,000-12,000 by some estimates). Here is a video overview (also via Amrani) of the “transition to democracy” that U.S. leaders love to pat themselves on the back about:

As U.S. money and weapons continue to flow…

Some are even concerned that this month’s scheduled elections will be botched thanks to the ever more domineering SCAF. As Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Eissa recently wrote in an Op-Ed, “No one wants a postponement of the elections, such a delay would be a national crime. But the elections are severely vulnerable to a cancellation, and with it, the cancellation of national demands, should this opening round of elections be mired in blood.”