demagogue on 28/1/2011 at 21:01
Last report I heard was the military and police have pulled out except for a few places, and there isn't much protesting because there's nobody around to protest against, though there is some looting and people milling around, but no show of authority (at least what the reporter on the ground at that place said). Then some rumors from inside that the gov't can't come back from this, but it's hardly worth predicting things are so fluid.
Has the flavor of a watershed moment because of Egypt's importance in the region, more so than even Tunisia, though it get credit for getting the ball rolling (sort of like Poland and E. Germany in '89 maybe). But then we saw this movie last year in Iran and that didn't go anywhere.
Edit: Of course, most of us being respectable democratic liberals, we should sympathize with any movement for them to liberalize and move towards democracy and hope it works out for them. From what I heard much of this is led by middle class people against the corruption of the Mubarak regime, not any monolithic or radical ideology pushing it. But it wouldn't be good for some opportunistic group to wrestle control of the initiative just to set up a regime just as bad as before.
SubJeff on 28/1/2011 at 21:51
That's exactly what worries me. Egypt is pretty moderate, pro-West and so on. There is the possibility of nutters getting in power here. I'm not saying Mubarak is a good guy - by all accounts he's pretty corrupt - but given the region and the borders there is the potential for project badtimes.
demagogue on 28/1/2011 at 22:33
Mubarak just called for a new government, but didn't sound like he's stepping down and if anything was defiant. Protesters already sounded pissed.
Shug on 28/1/2011 at 23:05
Egypt's denile of service internet-wise is apparently unprecedented
Nicker on 28/1/2011 at 23:21
This, and other popular uprisings in the area, would be better news if the theocrats weren't lurking under every pile of excrement.
Fred Thiefstone on 28/1/2011 at 23:40
Quote Posted by Shug
Egypt's denile of service internet-wise is apparently unprecedented
wow!
Obama just made a statement about how they should turn back on the internet over there.
I was under the impression he wanted an internet kill switch here in the U.S just in case what is happening there happens here.:eek:
jtr7 on 29/1/2011 at 01:02
Obama is not Joe Lieberman, but he is a convenient scapegoat, eh?
SubJeff on 29/1/2011 at 01:02
Don't freak out, it's not a kill-switch. The government has just made all the ISPs turn everything off. Any country could do this.
demagogue on 29/1/2011 at 01:58
It's one of the least interesting things in this story.
(Edit: Ok, (
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/opinion/28iht-edcohen28.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212) not entirely. Apparently online coordination has contributed to all of this.)
If Egypt falls all sorts of things are implicated ... what the Muslim Brotherhood will do, relations with Israel, what happens to America's generous military & financial support, if other Arab populations follow suit, is this going to lead to a spate of liberalizing in the region or destabilize it? And if Mubarak scraps to stay in power, what will happen & how far is he wiling to go? It's the largest Arab country with the biggest military.
But what's really coming across as special in these protests is how much they are apparently led by middle-class people itching for reform and not driven by some ideology, which is different from revolutions of the past.
