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Saturday, November 25, 2017 6:00:47 PM
In Egypt, Furious Retaliation but Failing Strategy in Sinai
"Egypt hunts for killers after mosque attack leaves at least 235 dead"
By DECLAN WALSH and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICKNOV. 25, 2017
Damaged vehicles outside a Sufi mosque attacked by Islamist militants in Bir al-Abed, Egypt. A
government official said the gunmen had set fire to cars parked outside the mosque to hinder escape.
Mohamed Soliman/Reuters
CAIRO — After militants massacred 305 people at a packed mosque on Friday in a stunning assault .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/world/middleeast/mosque-attack-egypt.html .. on a sacred place, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi responded as he knows best.
Mr. Sisi went on television vowing to “take revenge” and strike back with an “iron fist.” Moments later, Egyptian warplanes swooped over the vast deserts of the Sinai Peninsula, dropping bombs that pulverized vehicles used in the assault. Soldiers fanned out across the area.
But that furious retaliation, which follows years of battle in Sinai against a vicious Islamic State affiliate that downed a Russian passenger jet .. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/world/middleeast/russian-plane-crashes-in-egypt-sinai-peninsula.html .. in 2015 and has regularly attacked Egyptian security forces .. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/world/middleeast/bombings-of-security-facilities-in-sinai-kill-at-least-26.html .. there, revived the most troubling question about Mr. Sisi’s strategy in the desert peninsula: Why is it failing?
[...]
For decades Egypt has seen Sinai through a military prism, taking an aggressive approach to an alienated local population. The military has engaged in summary executions and the destruction of whole villages, while offering little to solve the region’s deep social and economic problems, including chronic unemployment, illiteracy and poor access to health care.
Egyptian soldiers and conscripts are hunkered down inside heavily protected bases, venturing out in armored convoys that barrel down long, exposed roads.
[...]
“The Egyptians have failed to acknowledge that ISIS is not just a terrorism threat,” said Andrew Miller, a former Egypt specialist at the National Security Council, now at the Project on Middle East Democracy in Washington. “Killing terrorists is not sufficient. They need to deprive ISIS of local support, which is rooted in Cairo’s historical neglect of the Sinai.”
But that support has been eroded by multiple accounts of torture and extrajudicial executions by the military, as well as indiscriminate military tactics that often inflict civilian casualties and sow widespread resentment.
“The military has never cared for civilian losses,” said Mohannad Sabry, author of a book on Sinai. “The excessive and reckless use of force has killed entire families. We’ve seen airstrikes blow people up in their homes. We’ve seen villages razed off the face of the earth. That tells you something about how they see Sinai society.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/world/middleeast/egypt-sinai-mosque-attack-sufi.html
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Trump have much in common. Misrepresenting incidences, in favor of torture, and reacting
furiously for three. And Egypt's failure in the Sinai walks in some footprints of the American experience in Vietnam.
"Egypt hunts for killers after mosque attack leaves at least 235 dead"
By DECLAN WALSH and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICKNOV. 25, 2017
Damaged vehicles outside a Sufi mosque attacked by Islamist militants in Bir al-Abed, Egypt. A
government official said the gunmen had set fire to cars parked outside the mosque to hinder escape.
Mohamed Soliman/Reuters
CAIRO — After militants massacred 305 people at a packed mosque on Friday in a stunning assault .. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/world/middleeast/mosque-attack-egypt.html .. on a sacred place, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi responded as he knows best.
Mr. Sisi went on television vowing to “take revenge” and strike back with an “iron fist.” Moments later, Egyptian warplanes swooped over the vast deserts of the Sinai Peninsula, dropping bombs that pulverized vehicles used in the assault. Soldiers fanned out across the area.
But that furious retaliation, which follows years of battle in Sinai against a vicious Islamic State affiliate that downed a Russian passenger jet .. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/world/middleeast/russian-plane-crashes-in-egypt-sinai-peninsula.html .. in 2015 and has regularly attacked Egyptian security forces .. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/world/middleeast/bombings-of-security-facilities-in-sinai-kill-at-least-26.html .. there, revived the most troubling question about Mr. Sisi’s strategy in the desert peninsula: Why is it failing?
[...]
For decades Egypt has seen Sinai through a military prism, taking an aggressive approach to an alienated local population. The military has engaged in summary executions and the destruction of whole villages, while offering little to solve the region’s deep social and economic problems, including chronic unemployment, illiteracy and poor access to health care.
Egyptian soldiers and conscripts are hunkered down inside heavily protected bases, venturing out in armored convoys that barrel down long, exposed roads.
[...]
“The Egyptians have failed to acknowledge that ISIS is not just a terrorism threat,” said Andrew Miller, a former Egypt specialist at the National Security Council, now at the Project on Middle East Democracy in Washington. “Killing terrorists is not sufficient. They need to deprive ISIS of local support, which is rooted in Cairo’s historical neglect of the Sinai.”
But that support has been eroded by multiple accounts of torture and extrajudicial executions by the military, as well as indiscriminate military tactics that often inflict civilian casualties and sow widespread resentment.
“The military has never cared for civilian losses,” said Mohannad Sabry, author of a book on Sinai. “The excessive and reckless use of force has killed entire families. We’ve seen airstrikes blow people up in their homes. We’ve seen villages razed off the face of the earth. That tells you something about how they see Sinai society.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/world/middleeast/egypt-sinai-mosque-attack-sufi.html
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Trump have much in common. Misrepresenting incidences, in favor of torture, and reacting
furiously for three. And Egypt's failure in the Sinai walks in some footprints of the American experience in Vietnam.
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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