printThe Egyptian court sitting in judgment of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak will oblige the masses. It’ll masquerade as a court of law, but this tribunal will more closely resemble the French Revolutionary Tribunal, meting justice mercilessly by popular demand.
The Washington Post describes a rather cruel spectacle: “The first day of the ousted president’s trial transfixed Egyptians across the country as they watched a man who had once commanded respect and fear lying on a hospital gurney inside a metal cage installed in a makeshift courtroom. … His two sons, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, hovered over him, blocking the view of their father from television cameras and the court. Gamal Mubarak twice kissed his father and frequently leaned in to confer with him as his brother stood erect, holding the Koran in his hand.”
AND:
… most Egyptians seemed enthralled by the spectacle of the former president in a cage. Some replaced their Facebook profile photo with a screen grab of Mubarak lying on the gurney. Others voiced indignation that the trial would take longer than a day. His crimes were clear, they said. They pointed to his dyed jet-black hair and what they described as his smug manner, his arms often crossed behind his head, as evidence that his health was fine.
What a mess. Just another reason for us not to get involved in the Muslim world. Mubarek was a bad dude but he was our bad dude. If anybody is looking for Roy Rogers or Gene Autry they had better not be looking in the middle East. This thing will be a farce and the Muslim Brotherhood will immediately lead jihad against the United States and Israel. I guess that’s OK. After all Obama hates the United States and Israel so our new brothers in the desert will be right at home.
I wonder who the Egyptian “Robespierre and Jacobins” will be? Will there be, after, I’m reasonable sure, Mubarak’s execution or lifetime imprisonment, an Egyptian Reign of Terror? Then when things are at their worst, who will arise as the Egyptian “Napoleon”?
I hope this and the other “B-MOVIES” in the M.E. would hurry and play themselves out so the U.S. can extract our troops, cut all foreign aid, and revamp our entire world view that we can save everyone and every country from all calamities, man-made or otherwise.
Just two notes:
1. “reasonable” should be “reasonably” in second sentence of first post.
2. This LINK will add to the discussion / Comments:
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/04/a-caged-mubarak-in-the-dock/
Always a good opportunity to watch one of my favorites, the 1935 “Tale of Two Cities” and be thankful for quaint old English law. Mubarak should have had the good sense to get out of the country – but it is hard to shed tears for the old tyrant. The people want their circus of blood to boost their spirits until Egypt gets stabilized with a newer dictatorship (but it could be worse – one could have a 1000 mob Somalia).
I see the Egyptian revolution as part of the “destruction of Civilization” thing. At the height of the protests, the protestors were promising to have a million people in the square. The best they could muster was under two hundred and fifty thousand. The rest of the country was working. The country fell because the US lent its support to the rebels. That hasn’t worked for Libya so far. Funny how it was only going to be a few days, now months and today it is off the screen completely. Did we win? I think the Liberals worldwide have begun stirring things up in a copy of the 1930’s. Hitler got control of the German economy in 1937-or 1938. Obama just got control of the US economy today. Hitler had to build an army, ours is prepacked. I don’t know what all this is leading up to; but, we’re in for some interesting times, I think.
Orwell’s essay “Revenge is Sour” seems apposite to the whole notion of “victors’ justice.” A quote:
“It is said that when Mussolini’s corpse was exhibited in public, an old woman drew a revolver and fired five shots into it, exclaiming, ‘Those are for my five sons!’ It is the kind of story that the newspapers make up, but it might be true. I wonder how much satisfaction she got out of those five shots, which, doubtless, she had dreamed years earlier of firing. The condition of her being able to get close enough to Mussolini to shoot at him was that he should be a corpse.”
http://www.resort.com/~pri?me8/Orwell/revengesour.htm?l
Hmmm, that URL doesn’t seem to have turned out properly. Here’s the correct one, I believe. Anyhow, the relevant essay is quite easy to find via Google.
http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/revengesour.htm?l
Just get rid of the question marks:
http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/revengesour.html