A constitution drafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly was approved by a majority of Egyptians in a referendum, rival camps said on Sunday, after a vote the opposition said drove a wedge through the Arab world's most populous nation.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled President Mohamed Mursi to power in a June election, said an unofficial tally showed 64 percent of voters backed the charter after two rounds of voting that ended with a final ballot on Saturday.
I'm not optimistic about the chances of rule of law in Egypt. Certainly not in the short run. But 36% rejected the thing. That is a base of support to press for rule of law. They deserve our support. And some of the majority may have simply voted for stability after the upheaval.
We'll have to fight for rule of law and stability with the constitution they have and not the constitution we wish they had.
Hopefully we become experts on the constitution to help Egyptians utilize whatever good parts there are as leverage for more rule of law. Hopefully Egyptians learn to dislike this constitution and press for a new and better one. Heck, our first try at a constitution didn't work out--although its problems were not of too much power in the hands of the central government.
And use our financial influence to restrain the Muslim Brotherhood government's actions to see if responsibility to govern will temper their Islamist urges over time.
And by all means, keep sending the shiny weapons they've ordered. But make sure the ammunition and consumables that are necessary for a war against Israel are kept at low levels. We don't have a problem with Egypt having the ability to wage a small war against Sudan, if that comes up. But we don't want the Egyptians to be able to send several corps into the Sinai.
Oh, and also remember that Pakistan, prior to the 1965 war, stockpiled ammunition that was supposed to be used for training in order to build up a war reserve that was then used to fight India. So if we are sending ammunition for training purposes, do make sure we have officers on site counting the rounds as they are fired rather than just filing paperwork claiming Egypt fired off the rounds.
This new constitution is surely a problem. Work the problem. God help us, but good luck to our future Secretary of State. We may yet lose the war for Egypt (friendly and reasonably free), but we should not stop fighting for a better Egypt than Mubarak left. We still might get something good enough.
