An Enforced and Guarded Calm

Aftermath: These policemen were guarding an access street to the American Embassy. As you can see, some of them are smiling. Nothing like the stolid professionalism of the U.S. Marines guarding our embassy in Kabul after 2001. Early Saturday morning under intensive pressure from Washington, Egyptian security forces cleared Tahrir and the route to the U.S. Embassy, putting an end to four days of anti-film demonstrations by forcibly dispersing protesters. This latest action by security forces began just before 9 AM and lasted less than 20 minutes. Over 220 people were arrested; many were beaten and detained (ahramonline, 9/15/12).

Litter and Lackadaisical Policemen: This afternoon, all that was visible were nonchalant policemen with their large boxy trucks, four army armored vehicles with more vigilant soldiers in camouflage, litter, and a stray cat looking for leftovers in the garbage left behind. Some of the policemen sitting on the sidewalk actually wanted their picture taken. One in a wooden guardhouse was seated on the floor having a snack and talking on his mobile. You would never guess that this scene had prevailed from only about midday. This violence in Cairo and elsewhere in the region raises questions in the West about political instability in Middle Eastern nations where newfound freedoms have given way to an absence of authority. In Egypt, leaders work fast to repair deep strains with Washington brought on by their initial response to attacks on the American Embassy, quietly acknowledging that they were mistaken in their response. They focused far more on anti-American domestic opinion than on condemning the violence.

Egypt is in Revolution: Revolutions are often messy affairs. There have been various models and few have been as sober and moderate as that of the United States. The first modern revolution, the French Revolution, was driven by infinite expectations and saw sporadic eruption of mass protests, the outbreak of uncontrollable mob passion, organizers who failed to condemn violence, and the rise of a leader who used terror to regain order and impose his certain vision. Hotheaded marchers have arisen again in a volatile region. France had its September massacres, the beheading of its king and queen, thousands sent to the guillotine, and waited 169 years (after having tried five times) to get democracy right. Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries will follow their own routes; and at this point they are unpredictable.

Why is the Muslim World so Easily Offended? Fouad Ajami has recently addressed this question in the Washington Post (9/15/12). The recent confrontation of Muslim countries with a badly-made film makes us notice the unease of Islam in the modern world. There is a sense of grievance, an Arab pain and a volatility in the face of judgment by outsiders, which originates from a deep and enduring sense of humiliation. A vast abyss separates the poor standing of Arabs in the world today from their history of greatness. Their pride has been gravely injured. Outsiders, however, can't enter this explosive ground. Arabs assume that Westerners only bring evil and that Western judgments are always slanted and cruel, explains Ajami. Many of the ideas that launched the modern age had France, also the origin of the first great modern revolution, as their birthplace. Egyptians are trying to learn to live by new rules as well as feel comfortable in the modern age, a situation imposed on them from the top down, not emerging from the grassroots. A youthful and secular minority has embraced the modern age; but it has yet to convince the rest.

Coming Home: I walked back from the embassy on a major street that comes very close to my apartment building. Since I was coming from a farther distance though, I found some new shops that can be useful to me in the future. My house cleaner needed cleaning supplies; and I found a store with some of them. Even though life was going on as usual here–although a bit quieter, since it is still the weekend, I couldn't help wonder if some of Samuel Huntington's talk about a clash of civilizations is currently playing out here in Cairo and the region. In the short term, it definitely seems that way. Yet, the United States will continue to be the region's indispensable power. As Steven Cook in Foreign Policy (9/14/2012) suggests, "who would deny that the United States saved the world from fascism and communism and has been a beacon of freedom and prosperity for people the world over?" Some say the American dream is dead, but says Cook, there is something to the idea of America as a unique country. "People do not swim to Brazil for a better future; authoritarian Russia is a model for no one. India and China are still very poor countries, and millions of their citizens want to build their futures in the United States." Furthermore, "all the contenders for regional leadership in the Middle East have critical weaknesses that will prevent them from supplanting the United States." "Americans may be tired of this volatile region. But don't expect the United States to depart anytime soon. That is the price of indispensability -- and exceptionalism* too." After September 11th and the decade since, and now given the recent turmoil, Americans may feel they are weary and want to withdraw from the region, leaving it to its own fate. Moreover, the United States has made its mistakes in the region and suffered and won the wrath of its actors. Yet optimistic Americans remain, such as the four state department officials who died working to build a free Libya. Even if the United States wants to give up now, it really can't. (It's also important to note, Cook says, that despite the strain in U.S.-Egypt relations over the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, President Mohamed Morsi bowed to U.S. demands that he work to bring the situation under control.) *The perception that a country is "exceptional" (i.e., unusual or extraordinary) in some way.