Work of the West Sir— I believe that what we are seeing in Egypt today, a so-called uprising against the president and the regime, is another Western-engineered attempt to destroy a democratically elected government whose main purpose and legitimacy is to serve the Egyptian people. This is not the first time we are seeing a democratically elected government which chooses to serve its people and not the interests of the Western international power elites being undermined by Western-funded traitors, called “rebels” in the Western press, an integral player of these power elites. The purpose is to return the military government to power in order to have Egypt line up with Western/US/NATO/Israel interests. These interests will be happy to have a “secular” government in power which does the bidding of these interests. Mohamed Al-Baradei would suit their purposes. If not, they will support a permanent state of emergency in Egypt after the so-called Islamic government is removed from power. The fact that Islam in Egypt is the basis of Egyptian culture and civilisation and not an American-contrived fundamentalist aberration, is neither acknowledged nor respected. Simultaneously, the uprising at this particular point in time, is to entangle President Morsi and his government in internal problems so that Egypt is paralysed in the world political arena, in particular with respect to Israel. It is not an accident, nor a mistake, that it is precisely at this time that Israel has attacked both Syria and Lebanon and yet there has not been an immediate response and concomitant threat from Egypt, forcing Israel to reconsider attacking these states again. Lynda Brayer Johannesburg South Africa Economy implosion Sir— Egypt's population has soared while its economy is stagnant and food production lags woefully. Not a recipe for stability for any country, much less one in a chaotic mess. One of the biggest problems with Egypt is that the military is still in control of the economy, effectively crippling any chance for any future government to fix the economic state in the country which is on the verge of implosion. Mustafa Milhem Michigan USA Painful democracy Sir— Democracy is a learning experience, especially in the days of instant communications and Facebook. Egypt is going to suffer, as are the other Arab Spring countries. What Egypt is discovering is the price of democracy, namely that you can't riot and kill and oppress and rob. This will go on for a few years until you have had enough pain to want real democracy, and to work together to build it. You must also learn that the single most important test of democracy is in protecting the rights of the minority. Jenna Ingram Doha Qatar La La Land Sir— From the simmering Mubarak frying pan to the raging Brotherhood fire. Anyone who expected anything better obviously lives in La La Land and is prone to hallucinations. No doubt we will hear some calls for intervention. Because, no matter the circumstances or the location, there will always be someone who thinks that intervention is the solution to the problem. But the chances of an intervention in Egypt are nil, not least because nobody can make a convincing case for how it would succeed in practice, even assuming we could agree on what would constitute success. Mai Abdel-Rahman Cairo Egypt MB a tool Sir— Egyptians were fooled by the Brotherhood when they elected Morsi as their democratic leader after years of rule by Mubarak, until Morsi took office and started to show that the Brotherhood is the new ruler of Egypt and everyone else was the intruder. The Muslim Brotherhood is a tool of the West and only replacing the last dictatorship with another. Why in the world did the Obama administration encourage the replacement of one dictator, Mubarak, who was at least an ally of the US — only to open the gates for another dictator, Morsi, who hates the US and Israel? Erica Garrett Florida USA Morsi vs Al-Assad Sir— The biggest difference between Egypt and Syria is that Al-Assad has long-standing and firm control of the military. Morsi's control is both very new and hardly certain. Which is to say, Al-Assad has to worry about the rebels, but not about army units joining them en masse. Morsi not only has to worry about protesters, but cannot be sure that the army would actually do what he wants if he tries to order them to put down the protests. After all, if they wouldn't back Mubarak, why should he expect them to back him? Sherif Hassan Cairo Egypt
