Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East

The 2011 Egyptian Revolution was probably the most captivating political spectacle of a generation. Seven years later, after watching the revolution rise, try to steady itself and then collapse in the face of a brutal counterrevolution, David Kirkpatrick has written what is perhaps the best history of this period to date. Based on his own on-the-ground reporting as a New York Times correspondent in Egypt as well as access to top officials in D.C. and Cairo, Kirkpatrick has reconstructed the events of the revolution and its fraught aftermath. The book tells the story of the street movement as well as the backroom dealings that helped snuff it out. His reporting as a whole helps dispel the cloud of miasma that has settled over Egypt's tragic recent history, which remains unclear and contested to most. <br /><br />On the U.S. side the book provides access to John Kerry, Ben Rhodes and a host of military officials who had dealings with the Egyptians. It is clear above all else that despite some dissensions, the U.S. government absolutely green-lighted the 2013 coup against an elected government that, despite its flaws, had not crossed any line that warranted this extreme step. The U.S. government scarcely blinked in the face of Egypt's return to militaristic fascism, standing by to watch wholesale massacres of unarmed demonstrators, as well as mass torture and disappearances. U.S. officials both implicitly and explicitly cheered Sisi on and continue to do so, providing billions in military aid to his regime. Reading Kirkpatrick's account of what his regime really represents shows how monstrous American policy has been in this regard and how drastically it diverges from its soaring rhetoric.<br /><br />Its clear that the Egyptian military and "deep state" never for a moment intended to hand over real power to any elected government, let alone a Brotherhood one. From the moment that Mubarak fell they did everything they could to divide the revolutionaries, constrain the new government's ability to function and set the stage for their own violent reassertion of power. Under Sisi the police state is now back with a vengeance, annihilating everyone in its path, whether they be Islamists, liberals, leftists, Christians or even nationalists who speak out against the obvious mismanagement and brutality of the regime. Above all his military regime and its Western backers share a paternalistic, neocolonial attitude towards the Egyptian people. Despite their heroic fight for democracy, witnessed by the entire world, the Egyptian military, Washington D.C., and Sisi's Gulf Arab patrons have all worked to make the ultimately racist case that the Egyptian people need to be harshly repressed by military force, as they are unfit to govern themselves. I saw very differently myself during my brief time in Egypt after the revolution, where people were very eager to engage in real grassroots democracy and meaningful free speech, even at the risk of their lives. It was a vibrant contrast to older democracies where most people have long ago tired of civic life, preferring instead to pass their time in entertainment. The fact that Egyptian civilians were killed <i>en masse</i> within a year of elections for making what the world deemed to be the wrong choice it is a sad commentary on the brutalities that the liberal international order is willing to countenance against those it considers the Other. <br /><br />Kirkpatrick tells the story of Egypt's tragedy through the lives of its people from all strata of society, and he does so with a refreshing amount of humility. The book eschews almost all the cliches that tend to color writing on the region, and he is very self-aware about his own perspective as an American with a privileged vantage point on events. He doesn't fall into the trap of portraying any side uncritically, but one thing that comes across clearly is how fundamentally wrong the coup was. It was an act of pure barbarity waged under the banner of enlightenment, and its gruesome apex, the Raba'a Massacre, was the trigger that turned the entire region into a vicious zero-sum game between totalitarian militaries and nihilist-Islamist groups. One imagines how the world would've reacted if it had been the Morsi government that carried out such a massacre.<br /><br />Egypt is perhaps the most important Arab country culturally and politically in the Middle East. The tragedy of its defeated revolution is the story of the region as a whole. If you want to understand how colonialism continues to persist, in ways that, behind the scenes, are every bit as brutal and cynical as they were a century ago, this is the book to read.

one of the sad truth in this book is that even Islamist who believed in democracy were failed by the West, and it only strengthened ISIS point view that through explicit violence not demonstration that you will able to take control of your country<br />another book which made me disillusioned

كتاب سحري. الكتاب فعلا عاد بكل دقة كل أفكاري وذكرياتي من أما كنت لسه 13 سنة والسياسة بالنسبالي مجرد معلومات عشوائية عن وقفات احتجاجية لنصرة فلسطين.<br /><br />الريڤيوهات بالنسبة ليا لازم تكون من متخصصين وعشان كده عادة مش بعمل ريڤيو لأي كتاب، لكن الكتاب ده غير منتشر وهو يستحق ينتشر فعشان كده عملت الريڤيو ده. <br /><br />رحلة مش سهلة خالص على النفس من اول انتخابات 2010 اللي على صعوبتها وقتها كانت أبسط بكتير من معظم اللي حصل في باقي الكتاب، لفترة الثورة وكل ذكريات التحرير بتفاصيل يشكره عليها كل ثائر لتخليدها لأنها بدونه كانت هتضيع..<br /><br />لفترة المجلس العسكري اللي أدان فيها كل من يستحق الإدانة وأشاد فيها بكل من يستحق الإشادة عن طريق التأريخ دون أحكام منه ولكن التأريخ كافي ويزيد.. <br /><br />لفترة حكم مرسي -الله يرحمه- بكل تقلباتها بين أعلى نقط وبين قرارات -لا يمكن أن توصف بغير ما هي عليه- غبية..<br /><br />ومرورا بأصعب فترة تأكد لكل الشباب اللي عاصروا الفترة دي كشباب انهم يبقوا تروماتايزد لو كانوا لسه سلام يعني من الفترة اللي قبلها، فترة -سموا الأشياء بمسمياتها- الإنقلاب العسكري، لفترة العنف العسكري ضد الإسلاميين وتمكين السيسي لنفسه من الحكم بكل الوسائل المتاحة اللي تضمنت بالطبع دم ناس كتير، الكتاب برده صور تحول السيسي اللي كنت حاسس اني مجنون لاني حاسس اني الوحيد اللي شايفه، من تناقضات السيسي مع نفسه، لحاجات كتير في الفترة دي فعلا تستحق التأريخ.<br /><br />الكتاب طبعا من ملاحظات كاتب واحد. كاتب أجنبي عايش في مصر مهما كانت ملاحظاته دقيقة فهي ملاحظات كاتب أجنبي مايعرفش كل حاجة عن مصر وإن كان يعرف كتير. والشخصيات اللي اتكلم عن إدانتها وأحكامها هي الشخصيات اللي هو يعرفها.. الشخصيات اللي الكل يعرفها واللي كل كلمة عليهم وكل يوم بيعدي عليهم في السجن بيترصد، وفي كتير حصل وبيحصل وهيحصل مش موجود ومش هيتأرخ، لكني شايف أنه عمل كل اللي يقدر عليه. أتمنى في يوم من الأيام تأثير الفترة دي يروح، ولما أقرأ عنها تاني تكون حالتي أحسن مش كده ومش كل فصل يخليني في حالة أسوأ من اللي قبله. <br /><br />لو فاكر ان تجاهلك للتاريخ هيلغي تأثيره فأنت غلطان، ولو فاكر أن هروبك من الفترة دي على صعوبتها على اي حد فينا هيريحك فأنت غلطان تاني. لو مش متشجع تقرأ كتاب زي لمجرد انك حاسس انك مش هتقدم ولا هتأخر وهتتعب عالفاضي فكفاية انك تقرأه لنفسك عشان تشوف كل اللي حصل بعين محايدة مش بعين الدولة اللي كلنا بنشوف كل حاجة بعينها غصب عننا، أو بعين معارضة 100% اللي بمجرد ما بنحاول نخرج من ظل الدولة بنشوف كل حاجة بعينها، وانما بعين محايدة تماما ملهاش أي مصلحة في تأييد طرف من الطرفين. <br /><br />تحيا مصر.. بس مصر اللي بجد.

Interesting book from David D. Kirkpatrick, correspondent for The New York Times and eyewitness of the Egyptian Revolution. He gives a convincing as-it-happened account of his personal experiences during all the events leading up to and after the Tahrir square revolution. Surprisingly, he is pretty mild about Morsi's rule during the Moslim Brotherhood, and even confesses that this government, the only democratic elected Egyptian government to this day, should have been given a fair chance. Alas, in the end the Egyptians got rid of Mubarak, only to be confronted with Sisi. Nothing has changed. A real tragedy.

Since this book clearly was a personal narrative rather than a footnoted historical work, several dangers related to the Western journalist's narrative perspective were apparent. Kirkpatrick, while a talented domestic <i>New York Times</i> correspondent, was a neophyte to foreign reporting in general and the Middle East in particular. His family took advantage of classic instances of white and Western privilege. Given the heavy propaganda barrage Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had engaged in since seizing power (yes, a 'coup') in June 2013, was there any way Kirkpatrick could get it right? The answer is a resounding yes, and then some. This book not only accurately describes the brutal demise of the Arab Spring, it serves as a template as to how authoritarian populism spreads in many countries worldwide, egged on by the stupidity of The People.<br /><br />But before we get to the errors of the masses, let's be clear that no one comes away looking good in KIrkpatrick's tale. Mohamed Morsi appears as a well-meaning but bumbling fool, Obama as the would-be good Samaritan who tries (and often fails) to keep consistency amid a cabinet that values order over justice. But Hillary Clinton and John Kerry come off looking like defenders of fascism. Mohamed ElBaradei, as much as he renounced the coup later on, comes across as a toady for al-Sisi. The second-generation protesters in Tahrir Square, the 2013 Facebook-oriented Tamarrod movement, come off as a project of the mukhabarat. And our old pals Michael Flynn and James Mattis (who at that time worked for Obama) were nothing less than orchestrators of the coup. In short, everyone is evil. As we all look to the devastation caused by Trump and wish for a better outcome for HRC, it is useful to remember that the grumbling Western left got one thing right: everyone who is part of the global bipartisan elite <i>or</i> the new populist authoritarians is evil. There are no good guys, period.<br /><br />Kirkpatrick is enamored of the 2011 protesters in Tahrir Square, yet is realistic as to their limitations. Thugs working for the "deep state" (and the slogan carries meaning here) were everywhere, while Mubarak was still in power, and during the brief interregnum when Morsi was elected. In fact, the thugs took care to not enforce too heavily under Morsi, so that the people would beg for less chaos in their lives, and al-Sisi could ride in as their savior. Remember, and this cannot be repeated often enough, Morsi was inept, but the Muslim Brotherhood did not try to instigate a police state. It advocated nonviolence until long after the massacre of thousands of unarmed protesters in Rabaa in August 2013. The fault lay with the middle-class people who could not stand the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood won a free and fair election, and who thereby threw their lot in with the army, an army that later jailed tens of thousands and executed scores of people daily - far worse than anything under Mubarak.<br /><br />Kirkpatrick is right to spend a good deal of time studying the Egyptian media and bureaucratic forces behind the army and police, the ones that truly allowed al-Sisi's horror to spread. Egyptian propagandists are like the Saudi liars who tried to turn the war on Yemen into a patriotic crusade. Even the mildest skepticism or critique of al-Sisi led to shouts of "Traitor!" from talk-show hosts and celebrities in the 2013-2018 period. In short, the people of Egypt created their own authoritarian fascist state by mutual acclaim, a pattern repeated in Turkey, Poland, The Philippines, Hungary, et. al. The United States does not belong fully in this camp because resistance is strong, and because Trump is far too narcissistic and incompetent to be a good dictator.<br /><br />The most tragic part of the book comes in the last 50 pages, in the last half of the "Deep State" chapter and in the epilogue. Kirkpatrick sincerely wonders how erstwhile Westernized liberals in Egypt could have been so blind as to put their faith in the military. We know that the people live in fear, and that many have retreated into private hobbies so that they don't have to think how their society has collapsed. But Kirkpatrick talks to one woman about how former protesters in Tahrir Square have turned to discussing their depression and panic attacks on Facebook, on a daily basis. There is trolling and mutual recrimination on Facebook, to be sure, but there is also a reticence among many to simply say out loud "Wow, we were really stupid, weren't we?" But becoming an activist for the long haul demands that we look in the mirror every so often and admit to ourselves how dumbass we were to engage in this or that campaign. The people of Egypt are still far from that self-reckoning.<br /><br />In the epilogue, Kirkpatrick talks about Trump's first months in office, and explicitly talks about Egypt as a template for global authoritarianism. The lesson I take away from this book can be summarized by a discussion I had with a so-called progressive activist who talked about her admiration for Putin, because Russia after all needed "a firm hand." I told her that no one calling themselves a progressive should ever favor a firm hand under any circumstances, even if the alternative is chaos and disorder. Since most people prefer safety, security and predictability to democracy, such a vision is highly unpopular these days. Yet Kirkpatrick adheres to such a view, and argues that there is never any reason for citizens who have engaged in protest to be snookered by the call for a "firm hand."

Kirkpatrick, an NYTIMES reporter in the Middle East for about 5 years, brings us the undeniably tragic story of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 and its regression into tyranny. This is a great book for people who haven't really followed Egyptian politics since the ARab spring and need a refresher. Here are some of the major themes/ideas:<br /><br />Kirkpatrick frames the story largely as a liberal declension. You start with this stunning, hopeful moment in 2011, when Egyptians toppled their autocrat and appeared poised to elect a new leadership, open the press, and reform the country. However, the liberals (or what qualifies as a liberal in Egypt) were isolated and disunited, so the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists and nationalists seized the moment and took power in elections. The post-election moment was crucial: liberals faced a moderate Islamist government that they detested and never really gave a chance. The deep state (a real thing in Egypt) did everything it could to weaken and delegitimize Morsi: continuing corruption, intimidating Muslim Brothers, and refusing to police large parts of the country to create a sense of chaos. Of course, the Muslim Brothers were short-sighted and incompetent, especially Morsi, who is a bit of a Rohrscharch test figure: some people saw a Westernized Muslim, some saw a budding Khomeini, others just saw an underwhelming and incompetent man. For the most part, Kirkpatrick is easy on Morsi, whom he convincingly shows was not the real problem in Egypt. Morsi undermined himself with his decree that his laws were unreviewable by the court system, but even without this the state institutions and the army would have tried to delegitimize him. The liberals chose political expediency and an outsized fear of the Brothers over a commitment to constitutionalism and the rule of law when they backed and celebrated the Sisi coup in 2013. What followed was a horrific wave of violence against Islamists and Sisi's steady takeover of the country. Morsi didn't kill the democratic experiment in Egypt, Sisi did, and the liberals for the most part excused him or cheered him on. This was a catastrophic failure about which I argued with Egyptian expats at the time. I was freakin right.<br /><br />The lesson of this book is probably that liberal democracy and constitutional rule cannot take hold in societies with the following conditions: a small, disunited middle class willing to tolerate autocracy because of its fear of chaos or Islamist rule, a hugely uneducated and impoverished lower class (1/4 of the country is illiterate) that backs either Islamists or nationalist authoritarians, an entrenched, venal, and brutal elite that controls state institutions and deploys them for partisan ends and self-enrichment, and a society that has still not accepted the equal rights and citizenship of women. On this last point: don't tell me it has. It has not. America hasn't even, but sexism doesn't even describe the attitudes toward women in this book. They are pre-modern and dehumanizing. Women were effectively barred from the public square by the threat of violence from the police (remember the abhorrent "finger test?"), the fetishization of female purity, and the threat of mob assault, whether from Islamists or nationalist thugs. The public assaults on women in this book are things that I believe simply do not happen in the United States-in public. This book convinces me that most of the Arab world needs a massive reformation of the role of women and views about them before democracy really has a chance.<br /><br />Lastly, I disagreed with Kirkpatrick's criticism of the Obama admin's Egypt policy. Obama lurched back and forth on Egypt, ultimately refusing to condemn Sisi's coup because of the importance of Egypt to US foreign policy in the region. Of course, the US has reaped enormous hatred for backing such dictators, and the process is ongoing as Sisi continues to radicalize Islamists. But what option did Obama really have? The US maybe shouldn't give EG as much aid as it does, but Egypt will get that aid from somewhere else: Saudis, Russians, Chinese, all countries that don't attach moral strings other than serving their national interests. Kirkpatrick seems to believe that the US should be pro-democracy in Egypt, but on what foundation? On a tiny liberal middle class that bailed on constitutionalism anyway and exerts little real power? The pieces are not there, and jeopardizing the national interest for these vain hopes would not be responsible foreign policy. It is wishful thinking about a tragic situation, but that's why international politics is a form of tragedy.

Good rundown of the events of the Egyptian Uprisings of 2011-13 and their aftermath. Its best points are when it sheds a light on the dysfunctional Obama administration’s “Team of Rivals” strategy, the class dynamics of Egypt and the utter stupidity of the Muslim Brotherhood.

This book tells the story of how the Egyptian revolution fell apart, how far can prejudice throw away months and months of protests and sacrifices, and how fucked up this world is. <br /><br />This will give you a great account of what happened there and then, but be warned, it is quite depressing

I started reading this book because I know embarrasingly little about what actually happened during the Arab spring, not even to mention my non existing knowledge about the underlying structural patterns that involved the uprising. <br /><br />This book discusses a sequence of events before, during and after the uprising and is highly recommendable to everbody who wants to make sense of what was and is going on in the arab world. It gives an excellent overview of the parties involved in the uprising in Egypt: the army, the police, muslim brothers, copts, librals, mukhabarat (intelligence agency). It also discusses a wide array of topics that caused (and still cause) tension in Egypt: police violence, corruption, womens rights, class inequality, religious conflict, but mainly the failings of decades of authocracy. <br /><br />There were two unexpected things that I particularly liked about this book. First, it offers a perspective of the role of the USA in the conflict and the role of Israel. Something I never thought about before and which, at times, was crucial. Second, I very much appreciated the personal story of the author, who lived in Cairo with his family as a western journalist, trying to make sense of what was happening around him.

Gripping firsthand account of the political upheaval, protests, and eventually failed revolution of the Arab Spring in Egypt as experienced by a NY Times reporter stationed in Cairo during those tumultuous years. The narrative offers plenty of detail that makes for interesting reading.