by Dennis Loo
The latest developments in
The Egyptian military, which took over control after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, was initially seen by many Egyptians as heroic for refusing to fire upon the people who flooded into Egyptian streets demanding that Mubarak go.
As I wrote in my book, however, as it went to press in the immediate wake of Mubarak’s resignation: "
This is what we have seen unfolding in Egypt since, with the struggle intensifying as Egyptians call for the military to cede power to civilian control (having learned in the course of their struggle that the military is not the force for change that so many had hoped) and as the military defies the people’s wishes, deploying a mysterious new kind of tear gas manufactured in the U.S. (as reported by Al-Jazeera yesterday) that has caused some demonstrators to die of asphyxiation.
The use of force is the solid core of state power. It is what makes a state a state. Force is not what allows states to stay in power over the long haul; legitimacy in the eyes of the people is what allows states to stay in power over the long term. But you do not have political power if you don’t have the ability to use force and the ability, in other words, to get people to do what you want them to do, even if they don’t want to do it.
That is why the initial stage of the Egyptian people’s revolution was Mubarak’s ouster, but because the means of violence remained and remains still in the hands of the military, they cannot advance their revolution unless and until they break the back of the military’s ability to use violence upon the people and the people become an armed people capable of advancing and defending their revolution.
The idea that political power is somehow separate and apart from the use of force is widespread in this country and worldwide. But it is a grievous error to see it that way. Many people have lost their lives needlessly in pursuit of change because they did not appreciate the role of coercion in political affairs and went into struggle blind to the reality of force. As the famous military strategist Clausewitz put it correctly, wars are the continuation of politics by other, violent, means. In other words, force does not exist as something separate from politics. Force is an expression of politics when political struggles move over into an open and explicit fight over which politics will prevail and set the terms for the whole society. If you want to change society, you cannot pretend that force is irrelevant. You have to address yourself to it fully and resolve the issue fully.
The negotiations that just occurred in Egypt between the military and a few of the opposition forces, namely in particular, the Muslim Brotherhood, with the bulk of the opposition boycotting the meeting, have created a split within the ranks of the Brotherhood, with some of the youth arm of the Brotherhood refusing order from their leaders to stay out of the streets. The Muslim Brotherhood leadership agreed to a proposal from the military that the people in the streets consider a sell-out.
As The New York Times reported recently: “Egypt careened through another day of crisis with no end in sight as hundreds of thousands of people occupying Tahrir Square jeered at a deal struck on Tuesday by the Muslim Brotherhood and the military that would speed up the transition to civilian rule on a timetable favoring the Islamist movement.
“The agreement, which centered on a presidential election by late June, appeared unlikely to extinguish the resurgent protest movement — the largest since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak nine months ago. The crowd roared its disapproval when the deal was announced at 8 p.m., fighting spiked on the avenue leading to the Interior Ministry, and the number of protesters continued to swell.
From my book as I discuss the cleavages that arise among the different strata and that is expressed in different philosophies, value systems, and political programs: "