The Islamist bogeyman.

Editor,

The "Islamist" bogeyman is an American construct, not an Egyptian one, and its purpose is to instill fear in the deliberately misinformed American public to shore up unrelenting support for our own ever-burgeoning police state and enormous military apparatus here in the United States.

The trick Washington will continue to try to pull off after Mubarak is lip service for democracy everywhere while undermining democracy everywhere -- not least by raising the specter of the "Islamist" bogeyman -- so that violent repression continues to insure the exploitation by corporate billionaires of weak and poor people everywhere for evermore.

Re: "Uncharted Ground After End of Egypt’s Regime" (2/12/2011)