It is a sideshow now because of Syria, but I find the Egyptian drama incredibly interesting for a Red Empire-Blue Empire battleground. Last week, I wrote at the Daily Caller how the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knew another Islamic Republic was coming and fully went along with it. No nudging was done. They employed no tools to stop it. They wanted to replace the Mubarak regime with its military equipment purchases from the Red Empire and friendly relations with the other Red Empire clients in the area with a nice, Blue Empire democracy.
That failed. It failed because Egyptian generals saw a collapsing county and a distracted American State Department. It also failed because other Red Empire clients knew what was coming. Sisi and his crew wiped out the Muslim Brotherhood and truly dropped the hammer on them. Imprisonment, death sentences, and brutal suppression were all employed. America was caught with its guard down, and Secretary Kerry made odd statements that the Sisi coup was democracy because destroying the democracy was saving democracy. His Vietnam service finally came in handy.
Who helped Sisi and company boldly move? The Saudis quickly handed billions over to the Sisi regime, which brought food prices under control. There was another nation that was definitely interested: Israel. In the Daily Caller, I noted how the U.S. State Department heard how Egypt was going to change how they interacted with Israel. There would be no stopping Hamas, and none of the friendly intelligence communication between the nations. This would truly be a giant shift in the Middle East and threaten Israel. America knew this. Israel knew this, too. There was a completely redacted email from Amos Gilad that Secretary Clinton and company passed around, and we do not know what he wrote.
We do have an idea of what he wrote. Around the same time as his redacted note, the Times of Israel was publishing a blurb on how Amos Gilad saw problems with Egypt handing power over to the clerics and not living up to the treaties with Israel. The signaling from Team Obama is key. Gilad and Israel saw this coming. They knew Team Obama saw this coming, yet the State Department was overriding Congress and sending aid to the new Egyptian democracy and enabling the Muslim Brotherhood. America, as represented by the Blue Empire, had no qualms with a Muslim Brotherhood-led Egypt, and had not publicly demanded adherence to decades old treaties and agreements.
Sisi was working with the Muslim Brotherhood, and there was some friction, but Egypt’s deep power has always been who controlled its military. All of Egypt lives along the Nile and within a quick march of the Pharaoh’s men. Sometimes the soldiers are under a Pharaoh, sometimes a British consul, and now under secular military dictators, but all keep the peace. Sisi had that in the back of his mind with controlling power. Saudi Arabia and Israel probably made it apparent to Sisi that conflict would come and any friction with Israel would be a quick loss, so why not overthrow the MB and the Saudis will throw you some cash? The unofficial alliance between the Saudis and Israelis is quite the one-two punch in a region of instability.
In the end, Egypt stays a Red Empire client, but there is one kink in the process. A quick Google news search of “Egypt Russia” yields many stories of Egypt and Russia signing trade agreements, performing military exercises, and even building a nuclear power plant. There is information sharing between the two nations between military services, and Egypt has stated that Russia should be a part of any counter-terrorism efforts in the region. These are small moves, but steady moves. These are all the more fantastic in the aftermath of a Russian airliner explosion over Egypt.
America’s Red and Blue Empires are not the only patrons around the world. Egypt may have been fought over between the Blue and the Red Empires in America’s grey government, but the red team, as in not American, may be the ultimate final patron that sucks in Egypt. America’s blatant favoritism and efforts to help the Muslim Brotherhood while punishing the military tipped the hand of the blue team to Sisi and company. This might be a small mistake when one is the hyperpower throwing chips, drinking freely and playing any hand at the poker table with a stack of winnings. It is a blaring warning sign to any player and a fatal tell when the chips are running low.