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Today, August 14, 2019, marks the sixth anniversary of the Rabaa massacre—the worst mass killing in #Egypt's modern history. It is important to remember, because we are forgetting. It isn't the sort of day that anyone who's even vaguely interested in the Middle East should forget
In some ways, it was both an original sin and an epitaph, marking the definitive end of the Arab Spring and any hopes that we may have had in the spirit and resilience of a people. Egypt, and Egyptians, will probably never be the same
What really is there to say anymore? This is what Egyptians, or at least a significant number of them, wanted. It didn't have to be like this, but it was, and now it is Egyptians—and in some broader sense Arabs across the region—who will have to live with the consequences
But it's too easy to say that this what "they" wanted. It remains a moral stain on President Obama that his administration, through a curious mix of action and inaction, facilitated and justified a military coup on July 3, 2013. The massacre was the coup's logical consequence
"Into the Hands of the Soldiers" by @nytimes correspondent @ddknyt is the definitive account of what the Obama administration did (and didn't do) in the crucial days leading up to the coup and while the coup was in process: amzn.to/2Nab51w 
@nytimes @ddknyt Here is a short essay I wrote for @TheAtlantic two years ago on trying to process the tragedy of what happened. My relatives said it wasn't my country to mourn: theatlantic.com/international/…
@nytimes @ddknyt @TheAtlantic It wasn't just the massacre itself, but what it said about a nation—the bloodlust, the shame, and the purposeful, deliberate state of forgetting that would take hold of Egypt, and Egyptians, in the six years since
@nytimes @ddknyt @TheAtlantic As I wrote in @TheAtlantic: "Beyond the personal stories of death, fear, and families torn apart, Rabaa, and the military coup that preceded it, told a remarkable, and a remarkably sad, story of a country that appeared intent on destroying itself" theatlantic.com/international/…
@nytimes @ddknyt @TheAtlantic And I'll say this again and leave it at that: To the extent that Egyptians insist on feeling pride in their country, it is a pride tainted by the events that millions of them—including members of my own family—were complicit in
