After the Coup

Egypt must reach out to the Islamists it is now jailing

By Fareed Zakaria Monday, July 22, 2013
    • Yuri Kozyrev / NOOR for TIME

    Anti-Mubarak protesters near Tahrir Square during the 2011 protests that toppled the dictator.

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    That is not enough for many in Washington, who long for the days when the U.S. would direct events in foreign countries. Neoconservative commentator Robert Kagan fumed in the Washington Post that the Obama Administration did not seem able to wield the power that came with the $1.5 billion in annual aid that the U.S. provides Egypt. Within three days, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait announced that they were providing the new Egyptian government with loans and grants amounting to $12 billion.

    Egyptians are certain that the U.S. is the evil hand behind their woes--whatever those woes may be. When it was Mubarak, we were responsible. When it is democracy, we are also responsible. But that says more about Egypt's broken political culture and its conspiracy theories than about reality. Kagan writes, "The assumption in Egypt, as in much of the Arab world, is that nothing happens unless the U.S. wills it." Yes, but the vast majority of Egyptians--75% in the most recent poll--also believe that no Arabs were involved in the 9/11 attacks. Does that make it true? It is bad enough that Egyptians have political views that are based in fantasy. It becomes much worse when serious American commentators give credence to these mythologies.

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