Egypt, Liberty and Secession
By Russell D. Longcore
Dateline 2-11-11, 11:05 EST
Just a moment ago, we saw a televised news report which showed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s spokesman on state TV announcing Mubarak’s resignation and handing over governmental power to the military. Back a few days ago, I suggested that Mubarak leave the country and phone in his resignation from safer environs. Well, he’s pretty much done that today, except he ran for the eastern palace in posh Sharm al Sheikh, 250 miles from Cairo. From that location, he can go anywhere into exile.
Now the hard work begins.
I keep hearing all the talking heads say that Egyptians want democracy. That is a load of crap. Egyptians want liberty. Big difference. But they want more than liberty. There are over 80 million people in Egypt. Over 50% of them are below 30 years of age. At least 75% of those people are unemployed, barely surviving. They want to move forward economically.
Unfortunately, prosperity is not in Egypt’s future any time soon. Egypt cannot feed its own population at this time, and has been the largest buyer of American wheat for decades. Although think about it. Is that because they do not have enough arable land, or because a corrupt government has mismanaged the Egyptian agriculture for 30-plus years? And with a weak manufacturing base, it’s going to be a long time before the economy begins to rise out of the pitiful Third-World status it presently holds. Tourism represents 8% of the Egyptian economy and tourism will be directly affected by ongoing political turmoil. And without free-market reforms, the Egyptian economy is slated for more of the same.
So, will Egypt now lurch from one repressive, centrally-planned economy to another, with merely new faces in the same roles? Only time will tell. For now, a brutal dictator has been overthrown by a few hundred thousand People of Egypt.
The regime of Hosni Mubarak spanned over 30 years. Most of Egypt’s population knows no other president or government. Now that the president has resigned and the army is in charge of the temporary government, the people of Egypt should demand that a new Constitution be written for Egypt. Otherwise, this historic moment will quickly degenerate into “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Egypt’s first president, Muhammed Naguib, led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. The second president, Gamel Abdel Nasser, and third, Anwar el-Sadat, were cut from the same cloth as Mubarak.
I heard Washington’s President Obama (don’t miss that) speaking from a podium Thursday at Northern Michigan University. He made a big point that America supports the desire and actions of people around the world to throw off tyranny and form governments that protect their human rights…or words to that effect. This is a curious statement coming from an American president. Washington has climbed in bed with nearly every dictator of the past 75 years, sometimes installing them into power and sometimes toppling them, depending on their usefulness to our DC regime. Look around the world and see American foreign policy on the march. Washington hypocrites all SAY they support human rights but seem to back ruthless dictators, playing nation against nation in the real-life game of Risk.
Now America faces some upheaval of its own. Eventually, Washington’s government is going to collapse, the dollar will meltdown, and the economy will collapse also…not necessarily in that order. When these things happen and chaos ensues, a small handful of states will make the decision that they can survive better as independent nations than as colony/states of a failed Empire.
Some states will secede from the United States of America.
At that point, will the Washington President…no matter who it is…support the desires and actions of the citizens of certain colony/states to throw off tyranny and form governments that protect their human rights? If not, then why would Washington support liberty outside our borders but not inside our borders?
I believe that Washington will be powerless to stop secession. Look at what happened in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, second only to the USA in size and world power for most of the 20th Century. When the states of the USSR seceded in the late 1980s, the mighty Red Army did nothing to stop them. The Kremlin made no effort to stop secession. And almost overnight, the USSR was no more.
Fast forward to today’s Egypt. The Egyptian army is almost a wing of the government there. No dictator can rule without their support. And in the early days of the demonstrations (last weekend!!), they did roll out tanks into the streets and fly fighter jets over the downtown Cairo square. But conventional military equipment had no effect. Was a tank going to fire on the crowd? Were fighter jets going to drop bombs into the square? No and No. Mubarak could have ordered the army to clear the square by whatever means necessary. But it would appear that, even if he desired bloodshed, the generals did not agree.
So do not let this lesson go unlearned. In a nation of over 80 million people, less than one million demonstrators in the capitol city caused the collapse of a repressive government in less than 10 days.
Could the same thing happen in the USA? I doubt it. First, we are a confederacy of colony/states [not any more - not since 1865] under a central government as opposed to being a single nation. So, Washington’s power is somewhat protected by our form of government. Secondly, DC’s officials know that Americans won’t try to overthrow Washington’s government because Americans are mostly sheep. And thirdly, economic collapse has not happened yet, so none of us knows what will occur once it does.
But the question is not whether the Washington DC government should be overthrown. I do not believe it should. I believe that colony/states should secede from the United States of America and leave the USA to its own demise. There are far too many benefits in secession, and far too few downsides to remain an American colony/state. After the American economy collapses under the weight of Federal regulation, taxation and hyperinflation, the possibility of secession will be on the lips of most Americans.
Secession is the Hope For Mankind. Who will be first?
DumpDC. Six Letters That Can Change History.
© Copyright 2011, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
Current AffairsIf you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
