Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Ralph Peters on the Violence and Crackdown in Egypt.

How should the White House respond to the violence raging in Egypt? Video. Col. Ralph Peters with Martha MacCallum. America Live. Fox News, August 14, 2013. YouTube, YouTubeYouTube.

Christians “collateral damage” or targets in Egypt? Video. Col. Ralph Peters with Alisyn Camerota. America Live. Fox News, August 15, 2013. YouTubeYouTube.

This blood is on the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood. By Ralph Peters. New York Post, August 15, 2013.

Peters (August 14 video):

We need to get over our narcissism and recognize what’s going on in Egypt isn’t about us. It is about the people in Egypt and other peoples throughout the Middle East struggling against the fundamentalist extremists who are our enemies too; people struggling to build modern, decent, tolerant societies. And so far the Obama administration’s helped the wrong people by and large. . . .
 
The bottom line is: we cannot determine Egypt’s future. The Egyptian people have to determine that. We can only play on the margins and we should try to play constructively, and not automatically assume “ooh military bad, peaceful protesters who happen to be thugs good.” I’m appalled by hearing so many Western commentators condemning the military and seemingly siding with the Brotherhood, when the Muslim Brotherhood would put these people in jail or far worse.
 
The Egyptian people want a little bit of freedom. The Muslim Brotherhood came to power and tried to take that little bit of hard won freedom away, and now you’re seeing the reaction. Again, I don’t like military coups but the real coup was what Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood did to that fledgling Egyptian democracy.
 
We need to get our priorities straight. And our priorities should be on the side of modernity, tolerance, progress, economic growth, decency. Not on the side of bigoted, medieval, primitive, hate-filled religion directed against peaceful Muslims above all. Because we should remember that the victims of radical fanatical Islam have overwhelmingly been decent everyday Muslims.