"Hayzaboon, Go Home"

All day I've been ingesting the coverage of the military coup in Egypt. Fighting has broken out in deposed President Mohamed Morsi's hometown of Zagazig. The leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood is being rounded up and put under arrest. The Gulf Arab monarchies, even Qatar, have publicly expressed support for Egyptian Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi's ouster of Morsi who is being detained. A big pro-Morsi "Friday of Rejection" protest is planned for tomorrow following weekly prayers.

The United States is stepping gingerly. Obama's position so far is that he is deeply concerned about Morsi's ouster and the suspension of the Egyptian Constitution and hopes that new elections will be scheduled soon.

But what caught my eye was Mark Landler's piece on Ambassador Anne W. Patterson in this morning's national edition :

Ms. Patterson’s problems started on June 18 when she was invited, at a time of mushrooming demonstrations against Mr. Morsi’s government, to speak to an audience in Cairo about the United States’ relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. It was, she said, a welcome chance to “set the record straight.” 

While the United States supported Egypt’s democratic development, it still had to deal with those in power, Ms. Patterson said, adding, “I don’t think the elected nature of this government is seriously in doubt.” Moreover, she said she was “deeply skeptical” that “street action will produce better results than elections.” 

Even as Ms. Patterson sought to distance the United States from the Muslim Brotherhood, those words marked her as an enemy of the crowds in Tahrir Square, reviving memories of Mr. Obama’s early reluctance to cut loose Mr. Mubarak, a longtime ally of the United States. 

“She manipulates people and secretly governs the country,” Mona Mohammed, 52, a bank employee said of Ms. Patterson at an antigovernment rally. “The ambassador is part of a conspiracy against Egypt and its people,” Ms. Mohammed added, clutching a poster with a caricature of Ms. Patterson and the slogan “Hayzaboon, Go Home.” (Hayzaboon is Arabic for ogre.)

The United States government is despised by the Egyptian masses, the European masses (for spying on them), the Latin American masses (for, among a host of reasons, getting Spain, Italy, France and Portugal to deny overflight of Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane because of suspicions that NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden was a stowaway) -- even the American masses (for being dysfunctional).