When Is a Coup not One?Stephen Lendman It isnt one when its our coup, a good cause coup, said Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins. Western diplomats are scrambling to characterize it otherwise. Coups are called military interventions with good intent. Saying they reflect good v. evil struggles doesnt wash. Merriam-Webster calls them a violent decisive exercise of force in politics; especially the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group. The Oxford Dictionaries defines them as sudden, violent, and illegal seizure(s) of power from a government. According to Wikipedia: A coup or putsch is the sudden deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment typically the military to depose the extant government and replace it with another body, civil or military. A coup is considered successful when the usurpers establish their dominance. A coup is a coup is a coup. Claiming otherwise doesnt wash. Diktat power rules Egypt. Tanks patrol streets. Demonstrators were shot and killed. Many others were injured. Numerous arrests were made. Martial law was declared. Egypts constitution was suspended. Morsis stripped of power. He and his presidential team are under house arrest. Theyre held at a military intelligence facility. Warrants were issued for hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members. Egyptian Foreign Minister Kamel Amr called John Kerry. He claimed Morsi wasnt toppled by military coup. Definitions are important. They matter. More on that below. The American side is a strategic partner for Egypt and the welfare of the Egypt is important to them, said Amr. Hes a career diplomat. On Tuesday, he resigned. Hell stay on until a interim technocratic government is named. I hope that they read the situation in the right way, that this is not a military coup in any way, he added. This was actually the overwhelming will of the people. Kerry said Egypt remains a strategic ally. Saying so assures business as usual. Amr briefed other foreign ministers. He spoke to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Definitely what happened was not a military coup, he claimed. I know that last night and today some people are saying this. Of course, I can understand. But what happened, definitely, definitely, was not a military coup. There is no role, no political role whatsoever, for the military. This is the total opposite of a military coup. He stressed transitioning to new leadership. He lied claiming coup authority doesnt rule. Egypts Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) holds total power. Political leaders serve at their pleasure. Generals have final say. Robert Fisk asked When is a military coup not a military coup? When it happens in Egypt, apparently. Quelle surprise. For the first time in the history of the world, a coup is not a coup. The army take over, deposes and imprisons the democratically elected president, suspends the constitution, arrests the usual suspects, closes down television stations and masses their armor in the streets of the capital. But the word coup does not and cannot cross the lips of the Blessed Barack Obama. Nor does the hopeless UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon dare to utter such an offensive word. Is it because Egyptians demanded one? Maybe its because Obama fears acknowledgment force(s) the US to impose sanctions on a strategically important ally. Around a $1.5 billion in annual aids at stake. US law prohibits funding coup detat governments. More on that below. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once called democracy messy. Obama claims Egypts on track for democracy. Maybe he means US-style. Its fake. Its in name only. Its illusory, not real. Paul Craig Roberts calls lawlessness the new normal. It reflects how America and key allies are governed. Diktat power rules. Laws are made to be broken. Freedoms a four-letter word. Its fast disappearing. Tyrannys the law of the land. Puppet leaders serve US interests. Sovereigntys quaint and out of date. Neocolonialism replaced it. What Washington says goes. Imperial priorities alone matter. Stand by then for the first US delegation to visit the country which has suffered the coup-that-wasnt, said Fisk. And youll know whether they believe there was a coup or not by the chaps they visit on their arrival in Cairo: the army, of course. Financial Times chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman asked When is a coup not a coup? Obama cant summon the C word. His lips move. He wont say what he knows is so. If it looks like one, it is. Egypt isnt ready for prime time. Good v. evil doesnt explain whats ongoing. Events there show that complexity, confusion and moral compromise cannot, unfortunately, be avoided in international affairs, said Rachman. Sweeping reality under the rug cant hide it. The New York Times headlined A Coup? Or Something Else? $1.5 Billion in US Aid Is on the Line. By all accounts, the generals removed the democratically elected president, put him in detention, arrested his allies and suspended the Constitution, said The Times. Army vehicles and soldiers in riot gear roamed the streets, while jet fighters roared overhead. But was it a military coup detat? For the White House and the new Egyptian government, that is the $1.5 billion question. Obama lied saying: I have directed the relevant departments and agencies to review the implications under US law for our assistance to the government of Egypt. US law requires doing so. According to the 2006 Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations Act, none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available pursuant to this Act shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to the government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree. Other US laws are relevant. The 1961 Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) prohibits aiding governments engaged: in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges, causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons, or other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, and the security of person, unless such assistance will directly benefit the needy people in such country. The Leahy Law provision of the 2001 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act (FOAA) (Sec. 8092 of PL 106-259) states: None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to support any training program involving a unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of Defense has received credible information from the Department of State that a member of such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights, unless all necessary corrective steps have been taken. FOAA prohibits funding foreign security forces involved in gross human rights violations. Its proscribed unless effective measures (are taken) to bring the responsible members of the security forces unit to justice. Egypts record is longstanding. Its consistent. It commits appalling human rights abuses. Washington rewards its crimes. Geopolitical priorities matter more. Theyre more important than international, constitutional and US statute laws. They exist in name only. Theyre willfully violated. Aid goes to nations deserving none. Israel has an appalling human rights record. It gets more aid than most other nations combined. It gets state-of-the-art weapons, munitions and technology. It gets more on request. It gets benefits afforded no other countries. It killing machine benefits. The same goes for Egypt. Its record is hugely repressive. Its a police state. Junta power rules. Democracys verboten. Elections are manipulated and controlled. People have no say. Elected officials know whos boss. Go along or be replaced is policy. On Friday, Egypts interim president Adly Mansour dissolved the Shura Council. Its Egypts upper house of parliament. Events continue fast moving. Troops used live fire against nonviolent demonstrators. Four deaths were reported. Muslim Brotherhood official Issam al-Aryani called on Freedom and Justice Party supporters to stay in the squares and protest. He urged noncooperation with Egypts raped government. Muslim Brotherhood members arent going gentle into that good night. Theyre not going quietly. They arent vanishing without a fight. Theyre outnumbered and outgunned. It remains to be seen what follows. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/ linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 