Soft Coup

Soft Egyptian Military Coup Deposes  Unpopular President Mohammed Morsi!
In a world of military coups where national leaders are overthrown by the presence of military power,  demonstrated or implied,  this Egyptian Military Coup is both ‘soft’ and ‘swift’.
The transfer of power from a legitimately elected unpopular representative to a transitional government imposed by a popularly-supported military is exceedingly rare,  if not a clear precedent for the future.
  I have been witnessed to and may even have participated in one or two coups but I have never seen a popular secular movement demand military intervention in order to create a more just and efficient government.
 Leave it to the incredible Egyptians,  the cradle of Middle Eastern Civilization,  to contrive a new game changer in the Pharonic  history of leadership.
Garnering over 33 million votes for the removal of President Morsi,  the Egyptians of all types of religious backgrounds [including even the Salafists] demanded that the Egyptian military support the peoples ‘wishes’ and ‘intimidate’ Morsi into leaving his post as President.
The Egyptian military gave Morsi 48 hours vacate his presidency or face the consequences, which btw,  were never really ever spelled out in detail.
So Morsi left without a fight.
  And that is what I call a ‘soft military coup’,  when no one, on either side of the confrontation is killed, imprisoned or in any way harmed.
  The essence of a ‘soft coup’ is the implied threat of force and suppression without having to really ever use either one.
  But unlike most military institutions in the Middle East,  the Egyptian military has always had a special relationship with it’s people.   From the founding of the modern republic of Egypt in 1952 to the end of the 1967 Israel-Egypt War,  the military has ruled BEHIND THE SCENES.
IT NEVER GOVERNED THE COUNTRY DIRECTLY!!
One EXCEPTION:  For only a single year,  the Supreme Allied Council of the Armed Forces ruled through the now-defunct National Democratic Party.
With the legitimate election of Morsi,  the military thought that it had found in Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood Party,  an effective political party that could run the country effectively.

However,  the Egyptian populace was not happy with the Ex-California-based Professor Morsi’s ability to run the country—either economically or politically.
  The people’s judgment was quick and decisive,  thanks to the social media which had played a crucial role in the deposition of Ex -President Hosni Mubarak.
  I was fortunate to have met both Presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak and had found them both to be quite capable, professional and efficient.   But I am speaking strictly from the perspective of an ex-USG official whose primary interests were American,  primarily concerned with Egyptian political stability and prosperity.

As a realist, I quickly understood that Mubarak and his family had remained in power for too long and had to be replaced, one way or another.
Now,  I have to comprehend the expansiveness of the Egyptian political will and how quickly it can be utilized for constructive purposes,  be it a change of government or a demand for a secular state bereft of any ideology or religion.
But the major problems of the country still remain in bold relief.
  A sky-rocketing unemployment,  economic deflation, political cronyism and limited natural resources,  in particular, water.
 

Most of Egyptian growth centers around the famous Nile River.   Unfortunately,  Ethiopia has recently found it necessary to tamper with the limited amount of water in the Nile.   So Egypt must deal with Ethiopia very soon. 
On July 4^th,   the Chief Justice of the Egyptian Constitutional Court,  Adly Mansour,  will be sworn in as interim president before the General Assembly.  His appointment fulfills one of the mandates for the Tamarod’s protest movement that organized the 33million voters.
  Now we must wait to see what he can do.
  As we have seen around the world,  it’s one thing to ascend the greasy pole of politics and become the ‘chief honcho’.  It’s another issue to rule effectively.

Napoleon Bonaparte understood the need for the dichotomy in one’s personality:
“In order to climb the greasy pole of politics, one must be obsequious;  once there, one has to become imperious.”

With regards to American interests: we have neither friends nor enemies.  We simply have national interests.  We impose and depose,  at will.
For those who may forget,  America is never an ‘innocent bystander’.
Just a ‘quiet participant-observer’.
WATCHING THE GAME: CONTROLLING THE GAME!!!
That’s REAL POLITIK –for good, bad, or worse.