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The Truth about Egypt's Revolution
(Wall Street Journal) Oren Kessler - In Arab Fall: How the Muslim Brotherhood Won and Lost Egypt in 891 Days, Eric Trager describes the Brotherhood as a powerful, if quiet, presence from the start of the 2011 rallies against Hosni Mubarak. The Brotherhood was the only movement in Egypt organized and disciplined enough to challenge the old regime at the ballot box. Trager suggests the military's move against Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi was not the inevitable result of its determination to deny the Brothers their place in the political power structure. Instead, it was the Brotherhood's own lack of vision and incompetence that drew Egypt's largest-ever crowds to the streets demanding redress. The book is indispensable not just for its account of how the Brothers failed so disastrously at governing Egypt but equally for its analysis of how Washington failed so completely to understand them. Three years on, Egypt's Brotherhood is a vastly diminished force, with its leadership and much of its support base imprisoned, exiled or killed under the Sisi government. The writer is deputy director for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.