Affluent Egyptians in Cairo Gloat Over Attacks While Eating Big Macs

The Wall Street Journal ^ | September 18, 2001 | YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

[Torie]

CAIRO, Egypt -- As the Bush administration works to draw moderate Arab states into its coalition against terrorism, it must consider the mood at a gleaming McDonald's outlet here on Arab League Street, a cosmopolitan avenue in a well-heeled neighborhood of Cairo. Sandwiched between a Rolex watch store and a BMW car dealership, the restaurant is packed with affluent university students dressed in American garb and aware of the billions of dollars in foreign aid that the U.S. has pumped into Egypt. It's the sort of place where one would expect to find sympathy for the American cause. But listen to what they're saying.

[A.J.Armitage]

Do you even have a point?

[Billy_bob_bob]

It has been my experience that 18-year olds tend to parrot the words of their elders, their peers or their teachers, depending on their individual inclinations.

[The Kitten]

Cut these asses off. Time to end the foreign aid over there. It irritates them so.

[Libloather]

It'll take time. I'm gonna go slow - just for you. Be patient...

[SC DOC]

May the fat grams of a thousand burgers infest your coronaries.

[Ciexyz]

"I just hope there were a lot of Jews in that building," she said.

That's probably why they picked the week before the Jewish High Holy Days to attack.

[JENINMO]

AFFLUENT PEOPLE EAT BIG MACS?????????????????

[The Kitten]

In the third world they do. In Shenzhen, China, McDonald's was considered by the locals to be the classiest restaurant in town.

[Kermit]

"They, too, appear to have come from relatively well-to-do families and had little in common with the desperate and usually uneducated Palestinians who make up most of the suicide bombers in Israel."

Actually, according to the Israeli Security Bureau (Shin Bet), the suicide bombers are also educated and more well off. Let's take the $2 billion from Egypt, let Israel clear out the West Bank and Israel itself and build a defensive wall. The can't be any intercourse with the Arab world.

[Demscheat]

What a bunch of scumbags how dare they endorse that terrorist attack and yet the eat american food?Why don't they have Bin Laden burgers and Afagainstan fries with saddam cola the terrorist combo.This people are sick and no deccent american should travel to egypt there are enemies not friends.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

My EXACT sentiments. Very high on my list of priorities has been to see the great pyramids in Giza. No more. I still relish Egyptian history for what it was. But as far as getting one penny of my United States Money, well... they can take that pyramid and shove it up their collective a$$.

[A.J.Armitage]

You take childishness to a new level.

[BnBlFlag]

These girls won't be sitting in outdoor cafes in jeans and tight shirts once the fundamentalists take over. They'll be sitting in the back room of their homes unable to leave without being accompanied by a male relative and having to be covered from head to toe. They are shockingly ignorate.

[afraidfortherepublic]

These girls won't be sitting in outdoor cafes in jeans and tight shirts once the fundamentalists take over

And they'll probably be subjected to female circumcision too.

[piasa]

According to a WSJ editorial last week, Egypt's largest newspaper has stated that Israel makes matzoh using the blood of gentiles.

Perhaps they would like my recipe for Usama meatloaf.

[angkor]

My personal experience - unfortunately - is that anti-American sentiment is widely held all around the world. Not by everyone, of course, but certainly by many.

Yet just as this article illustrates, even those who hate us simultaneously love our money, reluctantly admire our ingenuity, and remain mystified by our military and our statecraft.

It is also true that due to our frequent military and diplomatic blunders, we are vastly underestimated by the America-haters. They love to focus on our occasional weaknesses and mistakes in order to justify and "prove" their disdain.

But I also have conclusive and repeated evidence (both personally and anecdotally) that when the Big Stick is raised, those who dislike us shrink and shiver in absolute stark-raving fear.

There is nothing more terrifying to these hypocrites than to see the anger and might of America aimed in their direction.

It is truly an awesome sight, and I'd rather we have that, than even one ounce of warm-and-fuzzy feelings from 1,000,000 clueless Egyptian students.

They don't like us? Tough s**t.