What About the Egyptian Army?

As their nation’s capital descends into chaos and violence, one thing that continues to characterize this crisis in Egypt has been the behavior of its army – an army showing restraint. This is in a nation that in living memory had a military coup – by Colonels in 1952.

No coup in sight. Additionally, instead of videos of soldiers running down protesters in tanks and opening fire on civilians with crew served weapons, we have soldiers guarding museums and largely being left alone by bands of roving protesters.

While some are shocked that the Egyptian army isn’t following the example of other Arab armies from Syria to Jordan in the second-half of the 20th Century – really they shouldn’t be.

Unlike the pre-Camp David Egyptian army and those of Syria’s Asad and the King Hussein of Jordan’s – the leadership of today’s Egyptian army carries with it an American flavor, a flavor seeped in over three decades of close association. Exactly the opposite of what Hollyweird and the anti-School of the Americas crowd would have you think, never before in history has there been an military with a better political and humanitarian ethos that ours. The more we share that, the better the world’s militaries will behave.

In an interview with NPR’s Tom Bowman, retired Army Major General Robert Scales stated,

“The Egyptian military has been very careful to send only the best and the brightest and the most promising officers to American schools,” he said.

Today, most of the American military schools — from West Point in New York to National Defense University in Washington — have an Egyptian officer sitting in the classroom. Right now, one is even on a class trip to San Francisco.

Those relationships, Scales said, build what he calls enormous influence with Egypt, “not just because of the schools, but because of almost 30 years of intimate contact from exercises to the sale of military hardware like M1 tanks and F-16 fighter jets.”

In addition to that, there is the very personal relationships we share with our Egyptian counterparts. Under a structure in American law, policy and culture, security assistance and cooperation between the US and Egyptian for decades built relationships and acculturation such that the two militaries know each other better and understood each other more closely than the average citizen or reporters have with their Egyptian counterparts. That is why most US military officers are not shocked that the Egyptian military has shown restraint. Egyptian military leaders look to our habits as those as professionals – professionals do not wage war on its own unarmed citizens. They Egyptian people have seen that.

As a result, the Egyptian people, for the moment, respect their military over the security forces. The military is a player in a chaotic situation – so far a player in keeping some sense of security for national institutions and the structure of a government, whoever that winds up being.

What can the USA do for Egypt? Well, as a country we already have through all those U.S. military trainers and exercise participants through the decades who built relationships, understanding, and capability to see the American view of the role of a military. We paid into that potential positive effect for a long time, and for now see the fruits of that effort.

I wish we could measure that effect or plan on it – but that effect is there and it may well help in a tipping point or at a minimum buy more time for civil society to step in.

If civil society cannot find a solution – and you have a complete breakdown in security, then maybe you will see Egypt find its inner-Arab Army – but for now; a modern army is there, staying out of it. A very American, and very good thing.