Egypt: Mubarak Refuses to Step Down, Protests, Looting Continues

Some shots (real bullets) were fired by the police/military (not sure) who were also firing tear gas repeatedly.

 

The soldiers are now marching with the people, smiling, patting people on the back. Some military people waved protestors on to march with them!

They're all on the same side now!

Meanwhile a police station is burning. Ha!

 

The people of Egypt are very much against the police apparently. The military however is another story. Their military is very large and is very well thought of by the people because, as Skip said, they have come to the aid of the people numerous times in the past.

Now isn't that the definition of what a good military should do? Help the people, not kill them...

Anyways, apparently the police are not so well thought of, hence the burning down of police station(s). The riot police were the ones firing bullets and tear gas. They were called off and the military was sent in, at which point the people started chanting something along the lines of "praise god, we are one."

 

It is also a big deal, for the Arab world, because Cairo is the oldest, largest, most cultural, and most respected area of Egypt, and is also a key area in the Arab world as a whole.

 

I guess there might have been some bricks thrown.

No matter how ugly it may appear, a revolution is the truest form of democracy.

 

I can't really differ with this- though I see a revolution as the inevitable outcome when governments turn their backs to the public and deny them a legitimate voice in peacefully asserting their rights- the revolution is the alternative voice that forces attention. Unfortunately the brick throwing can easily be used to characterize protest as terrorism and those who dare assert their rights as criminals. The spectator culture here in the United States of Corporation has likely been purposefully cultivated with the intent on isolating effective dissent where the oppressed majority work to further the agenda of their oppressors.

The almost certain fallout of spreading unrest is the curtailing of the means the dissenters use to communicate and coordinate protests. Effective revolution needs to be planned very carefully. Throwing bricks is tantamount to going all-in while holding a losing hand in a poker game... the deck is severely stacked against the middle class. This furnishes a challenge because bitching and whining about it accomplishes nothing.

 

And yet the US is now being open and adamant about how the Egyptian government must not use violence against its people.

Just another day of playing the game for the US.

 

Yeah the US supported Mubarak........as did near every other western nation. Mubarak might be an authoritarian leader but by Arab world standards it was pretty mild. We also supported Egyptian nationalization of the Suez canal and their effort to repel the British and French invasion following it.

 

Right, only now the US is saying the government must treat its people decently. Whereas before all of this happened, they didn't really give a shit how the government treated its people, in fact it knew that aspects of authority treated the people badly.

All this can be summed up into an age old saying oh so often said of the United States;

They're trying to cover their ass.

 

As is every other western nation. In fact the US's role north of the equator in Africa for the past 40 years has been pretty limited compared to other areas, we were more busy fighting proxy wars with the Soviet Union in southern Africa. Tunisia, Algeria, Chad, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, France has played a much larger role in propping up strongman in northern Africa in its former protectorates than the US and has directly sent troops to the ground in many of these nations.

Also rule #1 of international politics, you don't piss off your allies, especially when they're among the least repressive of repressive leaders in an area.

 

Someone just said that the "US does not need Mubarak, but they do need Egypt".

 

Entirely true. Egypt is a king pin in Arab politics as it has a large military, is a large receiver of US aid, and has the largest population. It controls the Suez canal which is vital for world trade, and was the first country to sign a peace treaty with Israel and has played an active role in trying to get other Arab nations to do so.

Mubarak is important though cause revolution can go both ways, yeah it can lead to a more liberalized democracy, or the main opposition party the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood can find a way to exploit the protests(right now they're basically trying to play catch up as they didn't take an active role at first) and we can get Iran version 2.0

 

Once the riots hit the Suez Canal...gas goes up to 4 or 5 dollars in the USA. Are you ready for that? The global banking cartel has forced the government to cut back these peoples version of foodstamps and they are starving to death. They want an uprising in the middle east so they can use the uprising as an excuse to further bring down the USA. Its all by design, all been planned for years. I bet gas goes up to 4 or 5 dollars here in the US.