Egypt - revolution entering it's most crucial phase

[Sak01]

If anyone is following this, the second and arguably most critical phase of the revolution has begun - trying to remove the army top brass's iron grip on the country.

My gut feeling is that this is going to get a lot worse. Certain powers that freely supported the tyrant Mubarak were happy to let him go as long as their friends in the Egyptian army kept control. They do not wish to see the army go too.

Oh, and some disgusting comments from Donald Trump

"Egypt is turning into a hot bed of radical Islam. The current protest is another coup attempt. We should never have abandoned Mubarak."

Yes, we should have advocated the suppression of the protests and continued to support a brutal dictator who left a legacy of abduction and torture

Funny how all these dictators, be they Gaddafi, Saleh or Mubarak have one thing in common with certain Western commentators - they all try to pin the blame on extremists.

 

[Sak01]

Saleh down!

Yemen president quits after deal in Saudi Arabia | World news | The Guardian

That just leaves Assad, the most firmly entrenched of the lot and ironically, the only one of these tyrants that was not Western backed.

 

[Dark Jedi]

of course its going to get a lot worse. They was so busy wanting the leader out that they never thought of who would replace him. Did they think freedom and democracy just ran on its own? Did they think they would say they was free and all would be right in Egypt? Maybe they should stop and actually plan what they want and how to achieve their own goals instead of expecting others to give them what they want. They are just as bad as the occupy wall street crap.

 

[Sak01]

They're actually very clear on what they want. Mubarak out and prosecuted along with all the institutions and people that were instrumental in the suppression during his reign - the secret police, top military figures like General Suleiman etc. - followed by free elections and the transition to democracy.

They have already achieved some big goals and were making progress on the rest. There is no parallel here with the Occupy Wall Street protests in this regard. The only reason the situation has exploded again is because the military are trying to retain emergency powers and gain exemption from parliamentary oversight thus creating a background military dictatorship as it were and this is why things are getting ugly. It's nothing to do with lack of thought.

What did you think, that they could have planned the whole thing in advance and Mubarak would have played ball? He has a long history of brutalising anyone that dared to plan dissent. A massive, spontaneous protest was the ONLY way to force him out.

 

[Dark Jedi]

So they let the military run things. A military that was formed under his control. What did they think the military was going to do just give up power? So yeah they didnt think things through. If they would have they would of never let the military seize power. So yeah they dropped the ball and they are going to have a harder time getting the military generals to give up their power. Why? Because they have the whole military at their disposal and watch this will turn in to another Lybia. This time protesting in the street isnt going to work.

 

[Sak01]

You do have a point there. I also felt at the end of the first protests that it was a bad idea to let the military look after the transition. That was either a mistake, a dangerous compromise or unchecked optimism resulting from the jubilation of removing Mubarak.

However, hindsight is 20-20 and the fact is that they didn't expect the military to so brazenly make moves to retain the reins of power. After all, it was Mubarak and the secret police that were visible and active in oppressing the people during his reign. The military have largely appeared uninvolved in domestic affairs (I know they tortured people for the US as part of the rendition programme but that's a separate matter).

It's an interesting parallel with Libya. The Libyans also compromised and accepted help from France and co knowing full well that they were only in it for the post-war oil contracts.

While we're on the topic of compromises, it will be interesting to see if the Yemenis do the same or go all the way in forcing out the remnants of the regime left behind by Saleh.