Our "reformers"...*sigh*

Here are our reformers who take to the Egyptian streets...

"Yankees stay in Iraq and get killed." So read the placard carried by school teacher Iman Badawi during the anti-war demonstration in downtown Cairo held to mark the third anniversary of the war against Iraq on 20 March.

Some 500 demonstrators, including activists, journalists, politicians and university professors, joined Monday's protest, chanting anti-American, anti-Israeli and anti- dictatorship slogans for more than two hours. Police officers watched from a distance but did not intervene while dozens of police trucks, parked in a fenced off building site off Tahrir Square, maintained a discreet but visible presence.

Ostensibly to protest the occupation of Iraq, the demonstration's organisers --mainly socialist and Nasserist activists -- had a wider agenda.

One of the first names to be lambasted by the crowd was Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a staunch advocate of both regime change in Syria and the disarming of the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah.

"Jumblatt, you slaughterer, we won't give up our weapons," shouted one young man who was being carried on the shoulders of another. "Jumblatt you collaborator, we won't negotiate with Israel!"

Excuse me, who's we? Is there a Lebanese person in the crowd saying this, or are the Nasserists speaking on belhalf of the Lebanese?

Seismic regional changes -- most notably the electoral success of Hamas -- combined with pressures on Hizbullah and Syria and last week's attack by Israel on a Palestinian prison in Jericho and the abduction of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Ahmed Sadaat, combined to cast their shadow over the demonstration.

Marvelling at the silence of Arab governments over recent developments protestors shouted, "the Arab League is a league of clowns, where is Ahmed Saadat?" "Cowardly Arab governments," the chants continued, "[Gamal] Abdel-Nasser said it before, liberation comes by the gun, not through negotiating with criminals."

And what a great liberator he was! He liberated us repeatedly of our sovereign national territories, and natural dignity as human beings as well...terrific. "Marvelled"..."Marvelled" they say over the silence over Ahmed Saadat. Where was their single voice of indignation over the Aqsa Brigades unprovoked invasion of the Egyptian border and their "martyring" of a couple of our Egyptian soldiers (20 of them according to Tomanbay)?

The Nasserists obviously believe that Palestinians' rights are worth the world, and that Egyptians' blood was and never will be worth a cent...Why don't they move to Gaza? They would do us all a great favour. I for once would be very greatful to their achievement.

"Liberation" and "resistance," shouted the protestors, to the beat of two enormous drums.

The organisers, as well as demonstrators, were unequivocal in offering full and unconditional support to resistance and Islamic groups battling occupation.

"Hold on there Hamas!" they shouted, "a thousand greetings to Hizbullah, Hassan Hassan Nasrallah!" as they cheered, clapped and waved Iraqi and Palestinian flags.

When was the last time you waved Egyptian flags? The African Cup doesn't count.

"Resistance is not terrorism" they chanted, and "America is the source of terrorism."

Wasn't your totalitarian demagogue the source of our terrorism for almost two decades?

The demonstration occurred two days before the inauguration of the fourth Cairo anti-war conference, which begins in the Press Syndicate today and continues till 26 March, under the title 'With the Palestinian and Iraqi resistance... against imperialism, Zionism and globalisation".

So let's get this straight...

Reform against dictatorship and corruption = Protest against normalising relations with Israel

Reform = War

Brilliant.

Also...

National Honour = Protest against imprisonment of Palestinian person convicted of murdering official of a country we are at peace with.

Palestinians' murder of Egyptian soldiers after invading border = Our total orchestrated silence.

National Honour = Foreign People's Rights (no matter if they kill your own.)

Have I sighed yet?

* sigh *...

Morons.