Revolution in the Arab World - Observation of a lost soul Blog

foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • 18 days
February 9: Egypt’s
Foreigner Blame Game
BY PETER BOUCKAERT
A week into the demonstrations in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak’s once unshakeable
power structure was in full panic mode. What was once unimaginable
had become reality: Egyptians seemed on the verge of overthrowing
their government as hundreds of thousands marched through the streets of
Cairo, Alexandria, and other Egyptian cities, shouting again and again their
Tunisia-inspired mantra: “The people demand the downfall of the regime!”
As one protester told me and my colleague after viewing some of the
dead at one of Alexandria’s morgues, “We want to uproot this tree all the
way down to its roots, and then plant a new tree”—terrifying words for the
entrenched Egyptian autocracy.
Now, however, on day 16 of the protests, Mubarak and his cronies seemed
to have turned a corner. Instead of running scared, the regime is fighting
back with both words and violence to quash its opponents, portraying the
opposition as a foreign-backed, un-Egyptian group of conspirators. Sadly,
its propaganda campaign appears to be as crude as its actual physical crackdown
has been.
After Mubarak’s defiant late-night speech on Feb. 1, rejecting outright
the protesters’ demand that he step down, authorities unleashed a stunning
wave of violence and intimidation. Gangs armed with sticks and knives attacked
protesters. Thugs rode in on horseback and ran demonstrators down.
State-run hospitals were under pressure to conceal the toll, so my colleagues
and I tried to tally as best we could, visiting wards and morgues across the
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