Ashraf AboArafe
Heading a Congress delegation of 8 Republican/Democrats members, including Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham arrived this week in Egypt with two main messages: The removal of President Mohamed Morsi was a military coup and they want an inclusive Democratic process to play out in the aftermath.
With the go-ahead from the Obama administration to visit the embattled country, the Arizona and South Carolina Republican senators spoke on Tuesday to international reporters from the Four Seasons Nile Plaza in Cairo after meeting with Egypt’s leadership.
“Democracy is the only viable path,” McCain said. “That means more than elections. That means Democratic governance; an inclusive political process.”
The lawmakers firmly stated that they wanted to start a “national dialogue” on mending Egypt’s wounds — and that begins with releasing political prisoners like jailed leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the military cast out of power in July after protests surrounding Morsi’s governing style and handling of the economy swept the North African country.
“In a democracy, you have to sit down and talk to each other,” Graham said. “It’s impossible to talk to somebody who’s in jail.”
Both senators last week voted against a bill that would have cut U.S. assistance to Egypt, joining a number of senators who argued that such an amendment would work against the interests of Israel. But Graham and McCain argued that a military coup occurred, which is a message at odds with the Obama administration.
“The people who are now in charge of the government were not elected. The people who were elected are now in jail,” Graham said, addressing Egyptian reporters. “The status quo is unacceptable. Do you all agree with that? You live here.”
Graham outlined two scenarios the country can pursue from being ruled by an interim, unelected government. He said things could “slowly get better” by releasing prisoners and beginning Democratic talks among all Egyptians. Or the country can try to install new leadership quickly, which would mean “people start dying,” Graham said.
“A national dialogue and a conciliation is the only way to bring peace to this country,” McCain said. “You cannot sit down at the negotiating table and still preach violence in the streets.”
“I’m not here to go through the dictionary.”, answered angrily McCain to Ashraf AboArafe’s question (if you please, Mr Senator John McCain to give us a definition of ‘military coup’?). But suddenly, Senator Lindsay Graham moved McCain aside and took the microphone and replied, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.”
But, I myself think that the word “COUP” is not a crime itself and a good manner esp. when it’s so necessary to correct a mistaken situation lasted for about 2 years and protesters blocked the main downtown squares and streets around in Nasr City and Giza particularly after the full refusal to all peaceful attempts to end the sit-in for 48 days.
