Egypt In Turmoil

I follow Michael Yon on facebook. He has posted the following:

"I called a war correspondent friend last night in Egypt. She is highly experienced at war work -- more so than I am -- and she said it is about to blow."

I have to agree with his friend. As much as I relish the fact that Morsi is gone, military coups are military coups. We'll have to wait and see how this one plays out. After all, Morsi had enough followers to get the votes that put him in power, and the military overthrow of a government is hardly a new thing. What will be new is if, somewhere down the road, a genuine democracy emerges out of a military coup. And I'm not alone:

World Concern over Ouster of Egypt's President

About the only thing that gives me hope is that Egypt has always (for as long as I can remember, at least) been a trend setter in the Middle East. I hope ten to fifteen years from now (or maybe sooner) we will have a very different world. In my ever so humble opinion, the toppling of Saddam Hussein was the first step. We haven't seen the last, by a long shot, but along the way, since 2003, there have been many signs that the Middle East is undergoing a revolution of epic proportions, similar in impact to the Reformation in Europe and the expulsion of Buddhism from China.

And this is a different world than that which existed when Gamel Abdel Naser led the way for the Arab world to come out from under the thumb of European colonialism. That was way back in the early 1950s. Arab Nationalist dictators have done squat to ameliorate the living standards of their countrymen. Islamists have taken a bad situation and made it much, much worse. In the meantime, western nations, some at least, have soared to new heights. If it wasn't for Western technology (communications, especially) and ideas, the new democracy movement in the Middle East would not be happening.

Funny, some of the people in this video are holding pictures of Naser (at about 6:28):