by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich from OpEd News.
Occasionally I post an article that argues a point of view with which I disagree, but otherwise find useful to pose a counter-argument.
This one takes a very cynical view of the dramatic events in Egypt and argues that the Empire is manipulating everything to its advantage. Here the author makes the case that the US is in control of events and merely setting the stage for a replacement of another unpopular dictator. To be sure, this has often happened in the past in such places as Korea, South Vietnam, Chile, Guatemala, etc. I believe her argument that Egypt is following a similar pattern is not correct.
There is no question in mind that the US is trying to gain control of the situation from behind the scenes, but there are striking differences with what is happening in Egypt compared to changes of leadership orchestrated by the US in its other puppet governments.
First of all, the rebellion was spontaneous, sparked by the upheaval in Tunisia. Second, the rebellion had widespread popular support with millions of people participating. The Empire does not like to see popular uprisings like this. They can too easily get out of their control as happened in Iran with the expulsion of the Shah, another of America's appointed puppets. The Empire much prefers to remove their puppets before the people take to the streets. They much prefer palace coups as has frequently happened in Latin America. These are much easier to engineer.
(Note: Al Jazeera is clearly the best source of information on these fast moving developments.)