Making your bed and sleeping in it

Oh, be so careful what you wish for. Millions cheered when Muhammed Morsi was deposed last month in Egypt. No, he was no friend of democracy. But, what can you expect when the country has never known anything but authoritarian rule?

Mr. Morsi somehow believed that his election gave the Muslim Brotherhood the authority to impose an Islamic state on the people of Egypt. Never mind that he won with barely a majority of the voters. He took his win and did his best to ram his party's theocratic ideology down the throats of the people.

He seemed to forget that the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak wasn't the work of the Muslim Brotherhood. It was the work of the masses who were willing to stand up and risk their lives to overthrow a dictator.

After the fall of Mubarak it was the Muslim Brotherhood who was in the best position to take advantage of the power vacuum, having been an organized - albeit banned - party from the better part of the 20th century. They had the infrastructure, and the money, to put together a winning slate of candidates.

What they didn't have was the ability to compromise and to work with others in forming a coalition to develop democracy in Egypt. For Mr. Morsi and the Brotherhood, it was their way or the highway. And it was this attitude that brought about the crisis that resulted in a military coup in early July.

And make no mistake about it, it was a coup. The Obama administration can parse words and play games all they want - but when the military forces out a popularly elected president (no matter how much dissatisfaction their is with his rule), it is a coup.

There were those who welcomed the military into the streets in late June. There were those who cheered when the General Sisi announced that Mr. Morsi had been removed from office and placed under arrest. There were those who claimed that the military was acting to save the revolution.

Are they cheering now?

There are at least 281 more than 500 people who were killed by security forces today when the military-backed government made their decision to clamp down on dissent. What kind of a government turns its military on its citizens?

And, as I have asked before, what does this portend the next time a popularly elected president runs afoul of public opinion? What happens the next time the people gather together to demand that their voices are heard?

The government also imposed a month-long state of emergency. The purpose of the decree? To quell any and all dissent. How is this any different than life under the Mubarak regime? But I suppose that is a tricky question for those supporting the coup. So, come on , President Obama, explain the difference. Explain how the current situation is doing anything to advance democracy across Egypt. Or is this all about appeasing defense contractors who need markets to sell their tools of death and destruction?

I'm no fan of Muhammed Morsi. I'm no fan of anyone who wants to mix religion and politics. Could Mr. Morsi have handled his brief time in office better? There is no doubt about it. If he had been more interested in building a democratic Egypt than he was in deciding who folks could pray to, he would still be the nation's president. Had he been more concerned with improving the lot of the Egyptian people rather than telling them how to live their lives the nation wouldn't be under de facto military rule.

But that doesn't begin to excuse what has happened in Egypt over the past six weeks. And it doesn't being to excuse the shameful behavior of our government in the affair. The Obama administration has clearly demonstrated that our nation's supposed commitment to democracy and human rights is nothing more that empty words.

Never forget that what the military giveth by force of arms, the military taketh as well. Those who support the coup have made their deal with the devil and will have to live with the consequences for a long time. Or so long as they stay within the good graces of the military.

And sometimes justice just happens

It was 1981. Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, was sitting in the stands watching a military parade and basking in the glory of being seen as a man of peace after sitting down with President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1979.

The the parade came to a halt and shots were fired into the stands. Mr. Sadat was mortally wounded and Hosni Mubarak took charge.

Over the next 30 years, Mr. Mubarak ruthlessly stopped dissent, whether it came from the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood or secular groups. He benefited from millions of dollars in military aid from the United States who had no qualms about arming brutal dictators around the world.

That all came to a grinding halt in the Spring of 2011 when protesters occupied Tahrir Square on January 25 in what was the start of Egypt's Arab Spring. But Mr. Mubarak was not one to go down quietly. He sat and twiddled his thumbs as security forces murdered unarmed protesters in the streets. But, when his army refused to turn their guns on their countrymen, Mr. Mubarak's days were numbered.

In the aftermath of his downfall the military took charge. Parliamentary elections were held and the Muslim Brotherhood and other conservative Islamist parties took the wind out of the revolution's sails. When the Egyptian people walked into the polls for the first ever election for President, the revolutionaries were once again disappointed when the top two vote-getters were a candidate from the Muslim Brotherhood and Mr. Mubarak's last prime minister.

This past week brought a measure of satisfaction to those who risked their lives to stand up to Mr. Mubarak, however, when a court convicted the former president and sentenced him to life in prison for his role in the deaths of over 800 protesters.

No, the sentence doesn't bring back those who died in the Arab Spring and it doesn't bring back those who died at the hands of Mr. Mubarak during his 30 years in power. But it does send a message that heads of state are not above the law.

Of course we all know that it's the winners who make the law and Mr. Mubarak was clearly on the losing side of the revolution. But maybe, just maybe, government officials around the world who persist in violating the human rights of others, will see the inside of a courtroom and will be made to answer for their crimes.

Please excuse George W. Bush and Barack Obama if they aren't applauding the decision.

The perpetual state of war

Being in a perpetual state of war is the perfect way to deflect attention away from the lack of civil rights and liberties and from the growing gap between rich and poor. After all, your boss can't be your enemy if you're fighting an endless war with a neighboring country.

Just look at what evil plans our enemy has in store, the government tells its people. We must defend ourselves against the aggressor next door.We all must make sacrifices so that we can outlast our enemy and win this war. Protesting about your station in life will only show our enemy chinks in our armor -- it is the equivalent of treason. Rally behind the flag.

And so it went in Egypt until a week ago when the masses finally reached their breaking point. Without having Israel as the perpetual enemy of the people, light has finally shone on the policies of the Mubarak government that have left the vast majority of Egyptians living in poverty.

Of course the United States has been in a continual state of war since the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Japan. Germany. The Soviet Union. Vietnam. Libya. Iraq. Afghanistan. Poverty. Drugs. Terrorism.