Oh sweet speculation
And hasn’t there been a lot of it since Egypt’s revolution got underway?
So many people, so many opinions, so much sweet [#sarcasm] speculation, often dressed up as analytical certainty in some corners of the pundit universe. I haven’t blogged on Egypt’s goings on, because it’s not something I know enough about to make any sort of contribution, and so not only would I be commenting on a fluid situation, I’d be doing so from an ill-informed position.
Instead, I’ve been on the hunt for and have followed closely those who do know about the country, the region and can offer some insight into what has been going on and help the rest of us get a better understanding. I’ve read a lot and learned a lot over the past little while, and found some amazing people on twitter that I rather ashamedly had not discovered earlier.
When al Qaeda weighs in, I do plan to add some commentary, since that is something I do feel comfortable talking about. But until that happens, anything I might add is pure speculation.
Yet, despite al Qaeda not yet weighing in, this hasn’t stopped pundit-ville from drawing all sorts of reasons as to why Ayman al-Zawahiri (al Qaeda’s second in command and former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad) has not yet weighed in and speculating as to what he might say. *Of course* it’s the drone strikes [#sarcasm], and this pressure is why he has yet to respond. This may well be the case, but the fact is we simply do not know.
What we do know is that Ayman al-Zawahiri is not an idiot, nor has he historically shown himself to be impetuous or prone to the types of speculation currently being witnessed in some parts of pundit-ville.