As America rages, the Middle East watches with surprise — and some schadenfreude
BEIRUT - Police vehicles crashing through crowds. Journalists shot at or arrested. Officers and self-appointed militiamen threatening protesters. As images of America's rage explode on screen, people across the Middle East - no strangers to discontent, thoughts of revolution or the heavy-handed response of security forces - have been struck by scenes more often associated with their own region than with the world's superpower.
"It's the American intifada," said Rami Khouri, a journalism professor at the American University in Beirut who covered the U.S. civil rights movement and various Middle Eastern uprisings.
"In the Arab world, there's an inability to address the structural oppression of most citizens by an elite that has become very wealthy
