This is a background piece, the first of two. This one attempts to profile the Egyptian military. The next will profile the various police forces. [UPDATE: The discussion of Egyptian police factions is here.]
It's generally agreed that the Egyptian military hold the deciding hand in the drama being played out there. But who are the Egyptian military? Answer: They are not monolithic, and they are involved in more enterprises than you think they are.
Barry Lando, a former producer with 60 Minutes and author of "Web of Deceit: A History of Western Complicity in Iraq", offers the following observations (h/t MG1).
First, some context for the role the military plays (my emphasis throughout):
In attempting to convince Mubarak to leave the scene, Washington obviously wants to temper any further radicalization on the streets of Egypt and, above all, to ensure that the Egyptian Army remains unscathed. That would enable the generals to remain the power behind the scenes in the coming weeks and months—ready to step in, if necessary, to veto any attempt by Islamic fundamentalists to come to power—even by free and open elections.Then Lando characterizes the military itself:
But determining what the Egyptian Army will ultimately do requires weighing a host of factors.
The announcement, for instance, that the Egyptian Army would refuse to take up arms against the people played perfectly into Washington’s game plan. It undercut Mubarak and prevented him from attempting a bloody showdown that could have been disastrous. In fact, the Egyptian military made that same announcement in 1977 when they were called in to quell riots after President Sadat announced cuts in basic food subsidies. The Army refused to intervene unless the subsidies were reestablished. Sadat restored the subsidies.
Of course, the Army is not monolithic. Its lower ranks are very much of the people: filled with hundreds of thousands of conscripts, drawn from the most humble ranks of society. The army has traditionally been the most important means of socializing and educating the lower classes, in theory, inculcating them with a sense of pride and patriotism. Indeed the 1971 Constitution says that the Egyptian Army shall “belong to the people” … The top ranks of the army, however, have other concerns—beginning with personal survival. They certainly will never forget the lurid spectacle of Iranian generals being publicly executed in the aftermath of Khomeini’s revolution in Iran. Iran also demonstrated that a radical revolution also means a radically transformed military. (Egypt’s generals have a constant reminder of that lesson nearby: The Shah is buried in a Cairo mosque.) ... [T]he top ranks of the Egyptian army have also enjoyed a pampered existence, in sprawling developments such as Cairo’s Nasr City.The author details other aspects of the Egyptian military, including how incredibly wealthy they are as an institution — for example, they preside "over a sprawling network of 16 factories across the country, employing tens of thousands of Egyptians". And also how incredibly (and predictably) corrupt they are.
However this corruption, and corruptibility, should be seen as nuanced. As we noted earlier, Jadaliyya's Paul Amar writes about the military:
They are attracted to foreign investment; but their loyalties are economically and symbolically embedded in national territory. As we can see when examining any other case in the region (Pakistan, Iraq, the Gulf), US military-aid money does not buy loyalty to America; it just buys resentment. In recent years, the Egyptian military has felt collectively a growing sense of national duty, and has developed a sense of embittered shame for what it considers its “neutered masculinity:” its sense that it was not standing up for the nation’s people. The nationalistic Armed Forces want to restore their honor and they are disgusted by police corruption and baltagiya brutality [baltagiya are organized street gangs allied with police, as we'll show later]. And it seems that the military, now as “national capitalists,” have seen themselves as the blood rivals of the neoliberal “crony capitalists” associated with Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal who have privatized anything they can get their hands on and sold the country’s assets off to China, the US, and Persian Gulf capital.The Egyptian military has a lot at stake. And like the other entrenched elements of the Egyptian ruling elite, they need to get it right (for themselves).
So who's at work here; who are the national players? As near as I can figure, we have:
- The neo-liberal privatizers and thieves, led by Mubarak and his son Gamal, including members of the ruling NDP party and many wealth business types. This appears to be the top of the food chain.
- The various police factions, many (but not all) allied with Mubarak and against "the people"
- The military's lower ranks, very much aligned with popular concerns
- The military's upper ranks, as corrupt as the police but not allied with them, and who often see themselves as arbiters of order during national turmoil
- The Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist political party, whose support is hard to measure since they have been long supressed by Mubarak
- Other political parties and entities, including Mohamed Elbaradei. (For my money, watch Elbaradei.)
- The people themselves, who long to be free of Mubarak, and who see themselves poised between Europe and the greater Arab world (the main part of Cairo is often filled with a mix of Europeans and Arabs)
- Israel, universally hated at all levels, as near as I could tell
- And the U.S. government, staunch supporters of Israel (with all that that entails), and bringers of dough to buyable parties
It's not hard to keep straight though. I would hold three orthogonal axes in mind — pro- vs. anti-Israel; pro- vs. anti-freedom; and the varying degrees of eagerness by which elements are corruptible by money. Then realize that each axis is in play for each group, and there you have it — Egypt today.
GP
