Michael Shrimpton: The Coup In Cairo!

The Arab Spring is over. Perhaps we should now be talking about the Arab Fall, in more senses than one. I do not believe that Hillary Clinton knew about the coup in advance. While we have our political differences, she is both the nicer and smarter of the Clintons,and her commitment to democracy is undoubtedly genuine. She is bound to have misgivings over Morsi's seizure of plenary power in Cairo, which has echoes of the seizure of power by Germany's Colonel, perhaps it should have been "Oberst' Nasser. I am less sanguine about Obama. I suspect he green lighted the coup. There is too much US taxpayers cash propping up Egypt for Morsi not to have cleared the coup in advance with the White House. The proof of the pudding, as we say in England, will be the eating. If US cash is withdrawn, then we will know that the Obama White House is serious about democracy in the Middle East. With Iraq now an Iranian client state, the coup leaves Israel as once again the only functioning democracy in the region. Say what you like about those nice chaps President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, (and many have) their commitment to bringing democracy to the Middle East was genuine. They would not have stood by while Syria slid into civil war, nor would they have backed off Libya, as Obama did, presumably in the hope that Gaddafi could hang on. Obama's apparent support for the coup will have sent a shock wave throughout the Middle East. The coup would have taken some time to plan, and was clearly backed by Germany. The silence from the EU has been deafening. It looks as though Morsi agreed the timing of the stepped up rocket assault on Israel with both Hamas and Obama, the idea being that an Egyptian brokered "hudna" would provide diplomatic cover for his seizure of power. I respectfully agree with Egypt's senior judiciary that the powers Morsi has taken are unprecedented. He has promised to hand them back, but then so did Hitler, Mussolini and Nasser. Will Jordan be next?