A Path Towards Peace:
Ending The Egyptian Armed Forces’ Grip on Politics
by Dylan Escobar
Blood soaks the streets, as armed thugs wage war on their countrymen. Egypt's military has had an oversized role in its nation’s politics for more than 55 years. If Egypt wants to see peace in the near term, a new constitution must be put in place to end to the military’s reign of terror and, in the process, to eliminate political violence in Egypt once and for all. To paraphrase Eldridge Cleaver, the Egyptian military is the problem, not the solution.
Mass protests and riots between the Egyptian armed forces and Egyptian Morsi-supporters have caused great distress and angst in the streets of Cairo for the last two-and-a-half years. The Tahrir Square protests of November 2011 concluded with Egyptians and foreigners being detained. Despite the democratic election of 2012, the danger in the Egyptian capital is greater now than at any time since the Arab Spring began. In addition to the violence, one constant still remains: The military is the ultimate source of power, despite efforts to appear differently. As Peter Hessler recently points out in the New Yorker, since the beginning of the Arab Spring, Egypt has held seven national votes but the country still does not have a single democratically elected official.
Late last year, the military ordered soldiers to storm the president's office and accused him of participating in a terrorist plot. In the resulting chaos, riots broke out between Morsi supporters and the Egyptian military outside the Republican Guard headquarters. The unrest left at least 51 people dead and 435 injured, bringing the death toll to over 100 since the military made its move.
When the former president, Mohammed Morsi was ousted by the military, there were a lot of Egyptians who applauded the decision, but the factions that did not agree were furious including the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Mr. Morsi had been a solid supporter.
Of course, the roots of this political crisis are far deeper than just the ousting of a controversial Islamic president. In other words there is far more to be seen than just what's on the surface. But by looking deeper the solution will become more clear: the military's grip on Egypt must be ended. It seems the only way for this to come about in any lasting way is for democracy to take root and be more than show in Egypt. Let the people vote and choose their leaders, then let the leaders lead. If the military does not like the way things are headed, let them seek change at the next election instead of with guns.