Nicholas Kristof's "Watching Thugs With Razors and Clubs at Tahrir Sq.": The Guys in the White Hats Against the Guys in the Black Hats

In a new New York Times op-ed written from Tahrir Square, entitled "Watching Thugs With Razors and Clubs at Tahrir Sq." (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/opinion/03kristof.html?hp), Nicholas Kristof creates a soap opera involving the good guys versus the bad guys, with a couple of fearless heroines thrown into the act:

"Pro-government thugs at Tahrir Square used clubs, machetes, swords and straight razors on Wednesday to try to crush Egypt’s democracy movement. . . . Then along came two middle-age sisters, Amal and Minna, walking toward the square to join the pro-democracy movement. . . . [S]ide by side with the ugliest of humanity, you find the best. The two sisters stood their ground. They explained calmly to the mob why they favored democratic reform and listened patiently to the screams of the pro-Mubarak mob.

. . . .

The road to stability in Egypt requires Mr. Mubarak’s departure, immediately.

But for me, when I remember this sickening and bloody day, I’ll conjure not only the brutality that Mr. Mubarak seems to have sponsored but also the courage and grace of those Egyptians who risked their lives as they sought to reclaim their country. . . . Above all, I’ll be inspired by those two sisters standing up to Mr. Mubarak’s hoodlums. If they, armed only with their principles, can stand up to Mr. Mubarak’s thuggery, can’t we all do the same?"

My goodness, how simple it all is! A New York Times op-ed writer can waltz into Egypt and within hours present us with a fairytale involving black and white, good and evil: Mubarak goes, and Egypt will be on "the road to stability". Does it remind you of what Roger Cohen would have had us believe in Iran in 2009?

Kristof would today have us believe that all the protesters in Tahrir Square represent the forces of democracy. Sorry, Nicholas, but it just isn't the case. Many are frustrated by unyielding poverty and an absence of economic hope. Will Mubarak's "immediate departure" cure these ills, despite population growth of some 2% each year? Not a chance.

And although the anti-democratic Muslim Brotherhood, also in the opposition's camp, has yet to make its voice heard, they are out there and waiting, as are their constituents: tens of millions of illiterate, unemployed Egyptians, who couldn't care a fig about democracy.

Kristof's optimistic spin notwithstanding, it's not going to be pretty. You've heard of a win-win situation? Well, here is a lose-lose situation. Thanks anyway for the fairytale, Nicholas, which made my morning.