EGYPT TODAY – AT 8:22 A.M. ET:  As predicted, the streets of Cairo are jammed with protesters today, although it is questionable whether predictions of a million citizens will materialize.

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Protesters packed Cairo's Tahrir Square at mid-day Tuesday, standing shoulder-to-shoulder as large groups still streamed into area for the planned "march of millions."

Soldiers stood guard and helicopters hovered overhead as demonstrators gathered to demand President Hosni Mubarak's resignation.

Egypt's government posted troops at key locations and cut internet service as activists pledged to hold major demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities Tuesday -- a week after rallies began calling for an end to Mubarak's nearly 30-year rule.

In Cairo, protesters set up their own checkpoints to keep weapons out of Tahrir -- or Liberation -- Square.
Inside the square, the atmosphere was peaceful.

At the same time, American journalists and policy wonks are divided in how to proceed.  The children, including Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times – a living example of the fact that a Rhodes Scholarship doesn't make one wise – are all gung-ho for the demonstrators, unconcerned about what they actually stand for.  Hey, this is democracy.  It's a big crowd.  The masses are in the streets, like in our college textbooks.  Let's sing.

But some of the adults are starting to ask questions.  What do these people really want?  Will they tear up the Egypt-Israel peace treaty and plunge the region into war?  What were they taught in school?

Journalists who know history understand that "democratic" movements, without accompanying standards of justice and tolerance, can lead to catastrophe.  In that connection, a survey of Egyptian public opinion is more than disturbing.  From Byron York at the Washington Examiner: 

Last year the Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project conducted a survey of opinion in several Muslim countries. The subject was the proper role of Islam in politics and society. One of the countries surveyed was Egypt, and among other discoveries, the Pew researchers found that 84 percent of Egyptians favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion.

In another survey, Pew found that 90 percent of Egyptians say they believe in freedom of religion. Pew also found that a majority of Egyptians think democracy, with protections of free speech and assembly, is "preferable to any other kind of government."

How can those attitudes fit together in a democratic post-Mubarak Egypt? It's no wonder so many people can't figure out what is next.

The Pew survey found wide streams of opinion in Egypt that seem at the very least inhospitable to democracy. When asked which side they would take in a struggle between "groups who want to modernize the country [and] Islamic fundamentalists," 59 percent of Egyptians picked the fundamentalists, while 27 percent picked the modernizers. In a country in which the army will likely play a deciding role in selecting the next political leadership, just 32 percent believe in civilian control of the military. And a majority, 54 percent, support making segregation of men and women in the workplace the law throughout Egypt.

COMMENT:  That should give us pause.  The election of Hamas in the tiny Gaza Strip has created a regional mess.  Imagine if a group like Hamas gained power in Egypt, the most influential Arab country. 

We hope the grown-up journalists continue to give us background.  This is not a simple good vs. bad issue.  Egypt is a complex mechanism, in many respects a failed society whose greatness lies only in memory.  Can Egypt be brought into the modern world as a responsible, democratic state?  That is the question.  It is being ignored by too many in the exciting, blow-by-blow reporting of street protests.  But that question can involve human lives, some of them those of American soldiers.

February 1, 2011