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| A woman tries to stop a bulldozer from sweeping up a wounded man |
Yesterday's violence:
A woman tries to stop a bulldozer from sweeping up a wounded man
Seventy-nine people died and 549 were wounded on Saturday in political violence around the country, state news agency MENA said on Sunday, quoting the government. That pushed the death toll since Wednesday to 830, including 70 police and soldiers.
When White House advisers formulate a position that they believe is correct but which manages to repel everyone, they say that they have “hit the sweet spot.” In Egypt, they have struck it with regularity. Obama has succeeded in angering Egypt’s Islamists, its military, and what few liberals remain on the scene—this is the price we pay, above all, for decades of fealty to Hosni Mubarak. But the Administration also insists on the need to stay engaged, even with a military leadership as heedless and as brutal as Sisi’s. After all, it says, if the U.S. withholds its relatively modest contribution, Russia, among others, will surely rush in to make up the shortfall and gain the kind of foothold it has not had in Egypt since it was kicked out by Anwar Sadat, in the early nineteen-seventies.
The Administration prides itself on taking the long view in foreign policy, forgoing the morally satisfying gesture in pursuit of a cooler calculation of outcomes. Yet gestures and words matter, too. There comes a point when a thing demands its proper name. A coup is a coup. A despot is a despot. And a massacre is a massacre.