Egypt’s defense minister and commander in chief of the armed forces, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was standing before a packed auditorium, sporting a smile. “Allow me to express my gratitude to those who lent Egypt a hand,” said the No. 1 officer in Cairo. “I’ll mention their names one by one so that we can congratulate each one of them individually,” Sisi added. It happened Sunday evening [Aug. 18], in a Cairo auditorium filled to capacity with army and police officers. One by one, he called out the names of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. Similarly to an award ceremony, his subordinates responded with thunderous applause.

Gen. Sisi’s show of gratitude toward his friends in the Arab world was not just an act of courtesy but also a jab at Washington. Three days earlier, on Thursday [Aug. 15], US President Barack Obama turned to the public, giving Sisi a cold shoulder live on television. Announcing the cancellation of a joint naval maneuver between the two countries, the American president also condemned the regime’s ironfisted crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood activists.

Washington also intimated that it might discontinue its annual financial aid to Egypt. The military government in Cairo had a sense of a déjà-vu. Two and a half years earlier, the White House had left then-President Hosni Mubarak to his own devices against the raging masses, subsequently leading to his downfall.

Yet as it turns out, Sisi is not Mubarak, and these are different times. Cairo’s boss today is a young, charismatic, intrepid officer who enjoys wide public support in Egypt, as well as in the Arab world and from his Israeli neighbor. His intrepid character has allowed him to back his troops on the ground in suppressing the Muslim Brotherhood’s outburst of rage with a ferocity that was not seen even during Mubarak’s administration.