Watching the situation unfold today and tonight on cable and Internet etc. I could feel the frustration in the crowd, and even astonishment, at the Mubarak regime's seeming inability to comprehend how destructive their attempts to manipulate these protesters have become.
I saw all kinds of analyses, a lot of it fairly informed and intelligent (usually that came from Egyptians themselves) but I didn't hear anyone mention one of the obvious factors in the Egyptian army's not taking total control, and in the Obama administration's probable input to them, that if any change comes off as a coup, the U.S. Government is automatically bound by law to cut off aid (which means the almost two billion the Egyptian Army gets from us every year).
The Egyptian army has to make it look like a stable civilian transfer of power that abides by the Egyptian Constitution to keep the US aid coming. So what some in the Egyptian crowds were hoping for, and what some of the TV and Internet commenters seemed to be hoping for or expecting, for the Egyptian army to take over, is impossible to do blatantly.
It's all a muddle now as they allowed Mubarak to retain his pride in the form of his meglomaniacal paternalistic meandering speechifying, and Sulieman to come off as the slimy crony he seems to be and ended up satisfying no one.
More will be revealed. May it be peaceful.
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Lal: Never forget that Mubarak has survived for thirty years, give or take. That did not happen by accident. Now he is playing his "rope-a-dope" card.
~ Willy
gee so why DID we support this guy for the past 30 years?
I just cannot comprehend your naivete
and our continuing governmental ignorance!
I mean did you hear our CIA leader today? what a lying sack of crap!
I hear ya Tom. And as for anonymous, I can't quite figure out what his ranting is about. Was there something naive in my post? Like what? That if the army stages an obvious coup, even if just to install a caretaker government until elections can be held, they lose they automatically have our almost two billion a year cut off? I admit I made a few typos because I did this post late, but I corrected them, even though perhaps I wasn't as clear as I might have been. But the point is that with pressure from Israel and other allies in the area who want Mubarak to last until September so the Egyptian situation is does not became a model for other Arab nations run by strongmen (i.e. almost all of them) (or for someone not willing to maintain the arrangement with Israel that has relieved it of having to worry about that front for over thirty years) and pressure from the Obama administration to give the crowd some concessions and for Mubarak to make way for new leadership (yet without the army taking over too obviously so that it can't be called "a coup") whatever generals are running this show are up against a dilemma they obviously are struggling with, otherwise they would have either subdued the crowd with violence ala Iran and Burma (Mynmar) or just taken over and removed Mubarak and put some sort of caretaker government in power with the army controlling it until a new one could be elected or established.
WOW!
about 11:02 am EST, USA
a Bloodless Revolution (so far so good) damn few of those .... ever..
only other one I know of is that 1905 Russian Bloodless Revolution
so, now? Just maybe an Israel-Egypt-USA Alliance and a 'straightening out and stabilization of the entire region ?
NEAT happenings regardless of anyone's politics/religion
will be a long time for the dust to settle in Egypt
& we see what becomes of the past 30 years' complaints
the dynamics let us hope of
"politics as usual" have (maybe) just changed
and that this in 2011 Egypt is not as short-lived
as it was in 1905 Russia!
well
the very first statement from one of our congressmen... one van Pollen just out: (I think that he is from Maryland)
He says: "The next step is a free & open democratic election THAT EXCLUDES THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD." so much for a "democratic election" form USA perspective. who elected these Morons to our Congress?
not yet sure that this is our "official point of view/policy" It is from a House member and they pretty-much follow The Party Line.
just don't forget that when Sadat was assassinated GENERAL Mubarak was on the podium sitting next to him.. the General took over and put TEMPORARY military restraints on the people that were NEVER lifted. no one ever found out who murdered Sadat... I bet it was the military/Mubarak
Guess who is yet running things? The Military.
the more things change
the more they stay the same
Obama and many liberals have expressed support for the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that has American blood on its hands and aspires to spread shariah law throughout the world. Somehow, I am not surprised.
interesting developments in the last couple of hours. what say you now, anon and Jim?
You beat me to it again Robert. I was about the delete that comment before yours because once again it there's nothing in it that is truthful. I can find no statement that Obama has ever made supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, let alone the spread of "shariah [sic] law" in any country let alone worlwide. And by the way, Obama can't be a socialist and a supporter of "shariah law" (but we already knew he couldn't be a communist and somehow a follower of Hitler, but that doesn't stop the right from making those absurd accusations either).
From the Super Bowl interview followed by the MB creed below
Obama also said the Muslim Brotherhood should be part of that transition, even as he conceded there are "strains of their ideology that are anti-U.S."
Muslim Brotherhood Creed:
"Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."�Muslim Brotherhood
well
the VERY SAME Mubarak military are now in control...
so, not much has changed as far as who is running things...
now Hamas has asked the new regime to drop the blockade I guess they figure that the military will be overtaken by the Muslim Brotherhood and unite with them
now that Mubarak has left ... not much of the "new" regime is actually new.... same old-guard lying Generals who go all the way back to when they assassinated Sadat Mubarak then the head General, who was sitting net to Sadat took over..
meanwhile Iran MUST get into a position of being a "player" they are now shooting any protesters.
so.. when FREE and DEMOCRATIC elections result in The Muslim Brotherhood winning?!? will the USA still send them for arms $1.5 plus billion dollars a year to "keep the middle east "peace""? YOU BETCHA!
at least we KNEW that Mubarak was/is a SKUNK..
what's coming is "an empty suit" and lots of deaths
through these bull-dreck Religious wars.
Anon you get the complainer of the decade award - you find fault in everything, even gramma's apple pie. While skepticism can be healthy at times, so is nurturing an historical opportunity leading/infusing/surrounding it with positive energy, unless of course you believe that you cannot make a difference. And Jim, I woulda thunk the Tea Partiers would rejoice in this modern day David and Goliath story, rather that your sadly all too predictable negativity and detraction. Tea Partiers should be all up in this historical moment, but I haven't heard even a peep of positivity.
heck, Man, this isn't about the "game of politics" or the "game of religion"
I mean
if it wasn't for our ally Saddam Hussein REMEMBER him & the Iraq(USA)/ Iran war? and all of those weapons-of-mass-destruction we shipped to Iraq to DEFEAT the
Ayatholla Whomannie? and just remember Mubarak FOR 30 YEARS was our second-major ally in the Middle East.... and was one of the 3 main reasons
that there hasn't been a Nuclear War in the Middle East..
the attitude really isn't "what you can do for your
country" it is
"what your country can do for you" isn't GREED/ENVY/DESIRE
the 'way of mankind?
this is NOT a negativity it is just a means to "change" things...
& we are dealing with The New Reality..
where are all of these demonstrators going to get where-with-all to purchase a new VOLT? or a new 3-D TV? etc..
or the roads, electricity to run things?
Making Egypt and everywhere else "buy American"
just will now longer work.
the "melting pot/Diversity ain't working neither here nor there..
where is your offer of a solution? Print more money to fix more sewer-lines?
or, maybe the future lies in everybody buying a cell phone and earning a living Tweeting and blogging?
SOME SOLUTION... VIRTUAL REALITY. might as well stick your head in the sand
and
as for Egypt what (pray tell) is so positive about The Military running things & sucking-up the BIG BUCKS
in the name of Home Land Security and Fear, Anger, and Hatred?
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