The country is at a turning point. There are those who want to build it. There are those who want to destroy it. There are those who do not know what they want. And there are those who want it to be like it was in the past but do not know exactly which past, the modern Egyptian state of Muhammad Ali, the liberal era under the monarchy, the republican era under Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak, or the era of the unfinished revolutionary spring that did not blossom any flowers.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi knows exactly what he wants. He wants to go to the future and build the nation. And Field Marshal Osama Askar knows that he is entrusted with eliminating those who want to destroy the nation.
Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The president is courageously adopting new methods that none of his predecessors did. He knows that we will not reinvent the wheel when it comes to economic development.
But Askar is fighting a war that he had never fought before. It is a war unlike the October War of 1973 or the war we fought together with the international coalition to liberate Kuwait.
There are three types of warfare: namely a conventional war, a gang war and a war against terrorism. Each war is fought differently. You cannot fight a war against terrorism in the same way that you fight a conventional war.
Bureaucracy can very well impede the battle to rebuild the country. It can stall whatever laws and regulations that will be devised to fight corruption and achieve social justice.
As to the battle against destruction, it cannot succeed without the support of the Sinai inhabitants. They should be given the right to own land, as I had repeatedly called for.
The state is by far stronger than the terrorist groups, but it should have strategies and tactics that place those groups on the defensive. And we can learn from the experience of others to add to our own.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
