Explosions in Egypt

The BBC is reporting that "A large explosion has struck the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, witnesses have reported."

BBC TV news has sketchy updates suggesting that there may have been multiple explosions in the old center of the resort city, and that some unconfirmed local reports attribute the explosions to car bombs. There may also have been bombs set in a nearby strip of luxury hotels outside the city. The death toll was put at 20 by an Egyptian stringer reporting by phone. [Update: French TV reports at 8 EDT set the death toll higher. A staffer for Radio France Internationale in Cairo attributed the explosions to suicide car bombs.]

Thirty-four people died in bombings in the area last year.

Comments

[NoStar]

When will the moderate Muslims realize that they have a problem that they must solve? Or will they continue to be sheep and let the radicals control their religion, governments, and culture.

[Mo]

Holy fucking shit!

When I went to Sharm in December security was really high (this was due to the earlier attacks on the Jewish resorts). They didn't let unauthorized cars up to the front of hotels, bags and purses went through X-ray machines and we had to walk through metal detectors, just to get into our hotel. This is bad, bad, bad. Mubarak's going to send the military into the desert to hunt these guys down. Sharm is a major draw for European tourists headed to the beach. The administration isn't going to let this stand. He doesn't have pesky rights and due process to deal with either.

NoStar,
The Mubarak regime HATES Islamic extremists and not just because of our goading and money. They're his biggest political threat and the biggest threat to the Egyptian economy.

[crap-action-jackson]

These fuckers have got to go

[Jaybird]

Why do they hate us?

[thoreau]

Maybe Egypt should invade a country in the Persian Gulf.

[Barry P.]

Thoreau:

Simply calling it The Persian Gulf is enough to piss off a lot of Arabs.

[clearly]

Seems to me this could have been avoided if the Egyptians hadn't been occupying the land of the Pyramids that Muhammad built with his own hands, love and sweat. Furthermore, a close look at Egyptian foreign policy could have predicted this. What else did they expect when one of their own dirty wretches raped and vehicularly murdered the princess of Londonistan?

I don't want to say I told you so, but I told you so. Where? Don't tell me you're one of those midwest cowpokes that wasn't reading my blog

[joe]

Just to recap, the righties' theories so far are 1) Hosni Mubarak is too cozy with Islamists and 2) they hate Egypt's freedom.

That's just great, fellas. What would we do without you?

[kwais]

Joe,
My (as a sometime representative of the right) theory is as follows;

Stop giving Egypt 3 billion dollars a year. Let them decide absent a huge innefectual yearly bribe if they as a people want to be our allies and friends. If they do peachy if they don't oh well.

I don't really know what the solution is to their Islamist problem, other than freedom and prosperity.

[Born Again Iconoclast]

I used to think "freedom and prosperity" was the answer. But considering that a lot of these nuts are highly educated, upper middle class Islamic types who are not suffering the kinds of privations that real impoverished arabs suffer from.

This goes back to what I mentioned in some other screed about "Boondocks" and non-white culture. Westernized middle class ethnics and minorities who've bought into the "dialetics of oppression" bullshit that, despite their own material, vocational, educational, or social status makes them think "The Man" is the fault for their (imagined) "Oppression".

How can you ever appease a nihilist that has no real cause, only an imagined chip on their shoulder?

[Yo]

joe,

Certainly casts doubt on the leftist excuses as well, huh?

"The US deserves it for being in Iraq"
"The US just wants their oil"
"Insurgents are someone else's freedom fighters"

[Mo]

This problem in Egypt is 30 years old and is only tangentially related to the GWOT. These guys don't care about Iraq or Afghanistan. All they care about is taking over Egypt. This is the same group that bombed Luxorlast decade. Fortunately, they're harming Egypt's major industry, which will lose them support.

Everything in the world is not about us!!!

[thoreau]

they're harming Egypt's major industry, which will lose them support

This is where Kelo could come in handy. Every time an Islamist attacks a resort in Egypt, his home is confiscated and given to Donald Trump to build a casino.

[joe]

Yo,

I'd say, the difference is, nobody posted anything even vaguely resembling those excuse on this threat to explain the attacks, or anywhere else, from what I can tell.

Whereas my post was a response to two comments posted, that attempted to explain this atrocity using the American right's analysis of terror.

[Mo]

Yo,

"Insurgents are someone else's freedom fighters"

Actually, that's what they're trying to be. Their goal is to overthrow the government and create a new regime. If they win, in their books, they will be their freedom fighters.

[Dynamist]

joe: I think that's just your version of the righty mindset. Sure, some are that simple, and some more might use those two ideas as a summary, but there's as much thought and IQ points on the righty side as the lefty side. It's easier, though, for the lefties to say all the world's problems are the result of Bush being a moron.

[Noumenon]

I think "Hosni Mubarak is too cozy with Islamists" is an accurate paraphrase of NoStar's post, but I don't know in which comment joe sees "they hate Egypt's freedom." Jaybird's post is tongue in cheek and I don't know if it's the left or the right cheek.

This problem in Egypt is 30 years old and is only tangentially related to the GWOT. These guys don't care about Iraq or Afghanistan. All they care about is taking over Egypt.

I called up this Slate article headlined "Enemy Mine: Egypt took sides in the U.S. war on terror and paid the price at Taba" to oppose your opinion, but on closer reading of the article and not just the headline I bookmarked it under, it seems you're correct. The question the article raises still stands, though. Egyptian jihadis gave up on attacking Egypt in 1997 and switched their focus to the United States. Why have they switched back?

concluded this is about attacking America's allies in the war on terror.

[NoStar]

"Hosni Mubarik is too cozy with Islamist" is not an accurate paraphrase of my post. The comment is directed not at government leaders of Islamic countries, but to the rank and file Muslims who remain silent while their religion is being used as justification for terrorism and who turn a blind eye as their mosques are used as sanctuaries for terrorists.

[Mo]

NoStar,
Are those mass anti-terrorist rallies in Egypt an indication of their sheeplike behavior?

Noumenon,
I still think the same political goal applies. My theory for the resurgence in the attacks after 7 years is simply because they can. I'm sure they were having recruitment problems for domestic terrorism in Egypt before, but the current situation gives them a large pool of willing terrorists to help them restart the fight. I don't believe for a second that Gama Islamaya ever took its eye off the ball. The recruits probably want to declare war on th US or in Iraq, but the leadership is still primarily concerned with taking over the joint.

I don't doubt the leadership justifies these attacks by linking the ties between Egypt and the US (the new trade pact between Egypt, Israel and the US helps in this regard as well). However, the brass ring is control of Egypt.

[joe]

Mo,

"Are those mass anti-terrorist rallies in Egypt an indication of their sheeplike behavior?"

Well, yeah, ok, but they should do it MORE. I never see Muslims denounce terrorism on Fox.

[NoStar]

My comment is not directed at only Egyptians, but there does seem to be tacit consent for arms being delivered from Egypt to Gaza.

When will the "Arab Street" be firmly against Islamist terrorism?

[Noumenon]

"I never see Muslims denounce terrorism on Fox."

I'm not sure if you're joking here because I would expect Fox to be the last to give Islam its due (compared to the BBC, at least). But if you do see it on Fox, make sure it's not just a Pentagon press release.