’Round and ’round

Egypt has come full circle on government and gone back to full military rule, with its courts, supported by President Abdel Fattah ElSissi, having dropped all charges against former President Hosni Mubarak.

One of the charges against Mubarak was his role in ordering Egypt’s security forces to shoot demonstrators when the Arab Spring was in full bloom in 2011. El-Sissi’s government is now shooting protesters as well, and the implications of continued prosecution of Mubarak, a fellow former military officer who became president, could become unfortunate for El-Sissi in the future.

A shameful aspect of the whole circle of military to democratic then back to military rule in Egypt is the role of the United States. The administration of President Barack Obama first hailed the birth of democracy in Egypt, the departure of Mubarak as president and the election of Mohamed Morsi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood as president in 2012. Then the White House decided that Morsi was too Islamic as well as inept at governing. It was first lukewarm on then-General El-Sissi’s overthrow of the democratically elected government, but later moved to embrace him, abandoning all threats of reductions in aid.

Then the United States recognized as democratic the 2014 elections that moved El-Sissi from field marshal to president, even though he received a suspicious 96 percent of the votes. Now he has completed the dubious circle, with the United States still on board.

The irony is that by dropping the prosecution of Mubarak, El-Sissi is still unlikely to end the demonstrations against his government, instigated by underground militant Islamic groups, or the rebellion against his rule in the Sinai peninsula, which has a critical border with Israel.