Egypt’s ‘Days of Wrath’

What happened

A nascent revolution rolled across Egypt this week like a flood tide, as hundreds of thousands of protesters dominated Cairo’s main square, domestic and international support for President Hosni Mubarak eroded, and other autocrats in the region nervously offered concessions to their own angry populations. The White House scrambled to keep up with Egypt’s popular wave, issuing early words of support for Mubarak, but then calibrating its stance as the revolt intensified. Mubarak, 82, tried to appease the throngs calling for his resignation by pledging not to run for re-election in the fall, while President Obama pointedly stated that a democratic transition “must begin now.” Mubarak insisted he would not leave the country. “This is my homeland,” Mubarak said in a broadcast. “I will die on its soil.” That only intensified the revolt, and by midweek, protesters were repelling an attack by several thousand seemingly well-organized Mubarak supporters, some on horses and camels, which left hundreds injured.

The rebellion began when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians rallied in Cairo’s Tahrir Square several times, calling for Mubarak’s immediate ouster and free and fair elections. With the army pledging not to fire on them, some Egyptians slept in the square, occupying the burned-out husks of cars or claiming space in flower beds. “Egypt is mine,” read one graffito. The protests were populated by secular youths and laborers unhappy with food prices and low wages, as well as by followers of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood. Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, returned to Egypt after years in Europe and offered to lead a unity government after Mubarak’s departure. He called on the U.S. to “stop the life support to the dictator and root with the people.”

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The Egyptians’ defiance of Mubarak, who’d presided over a sham election last year, sent tremors across the Middle East. In Jordan, King Abdullah II sacked his Cabinet this week in an effort to appease critics, while in Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose government was rocked by demonstrations last week, promised to end his three-decade reign when his term expires, in 2013. “Egypt has been the political, cultural, and social lighthouse for the Arab people,” said Hadi Jalo, a political analyst in Baghdad.

What the editorials said

For too long, it’s been American policy to ignore “the democratic aspirations of Arab populations,” said The Wall Street Journal. Most presidents, including Obama, have preferred “the stability of friendly regimes.” One president, George W. Bush, had a different vision, launching a Freedom Agenda for the Middle East; it was roundly mocked by the “liberal realists” who dominate the U.S. foreign-policy establishment. Now we see where their cynical and sour “realism” has gotten us. “How much better positioned would we be in Egypt today if we were able to take some credit for the calls for freedom and democratic change?”

Everyone is nervous about the potential for “radical Islamist forces” to influence what comes next, said the Financial Times. But “it would be folly for the U.S. and its European allies to put themselves on the wrong side of history by denying Arab aspirations to human rights and economic advancement.” That’s “dangerous pablum,” said Investor’s Business Daily. The Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist group, is in talks with ElBaradei to form a new coalition government. If that happens, Egypt—a largely secular society and longtime ally of the U.S.—will become our enemy, and Israel’s, too.

What the columnists said

It’s unclear what kind of future Egyptians want, said Byron York in the Washington Examiner. But a Pew poll conducted last year isn’t very encouraging. “Researchers found that 84 percent of Egyptians favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion.” They also favor Islamic fundamentalists over groups that “want to modernize the country.” For people embarking on a democratic experiment, Egyptians hold “some views that Westerners find utterly inconsistent with democracy.”

Don’t discount the “courage and idealism” alive in Tahrir Square, said Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times. “Everywhere I go, Egyptians insist to me that Americans shouldn’t perceive their movement as a threat.” I may be drinking the Kool-Aid here, but we owe it “to our own history and values” to stand with the “peaceful throngs pleading for democracy.” It would be nice if President Obama would show he recognizes that, said Jonathan Chait in The New Republic online. Even after “Mubarak’s thugs” attacked protesters this week, the White House refused to condemn Mubarak and demand his resignation. Whose side is Obama on?

The president has good reason to be cautious, said Leslie Gelb in TheDailyBeast.com. “The devil we know is President Mubarak. In the history of Mideast bad guys, he’s far from the worst.” The inevitable beneficiary of regime change in Cairo will be the Muslim Brotherhood, which would be “calamitous for U.S. security.” The Brotherhood, more than eight decades old, is the original Islamic fundamentalist group. It “supports Hamas and other terrorist groups, makes friendly noises to Iranian dictators and torturers,” and opposes peace with Israel. We can’t afford “self-delusion” about what will follow Mubarak.

“Yet what choice have we?” said Max Boot in The Wall Street Journal. A post-Mubarak Egypt will probably distance itself from the West and forge a stronger alliance with the rest of the Islamic world. But the U.S. will retain leverage over Cairo with its billions in aid. Face it: “Mubarak’s day is done.” The U.S. and its allies can only “try to make the transition as fast and painless as possible.”