Egypt in Revolt

My my things do happen fast, no sooner had I posted yesterdays errr post then the Real News released a series of updates on the state of affairs here they are from top to bottom.

The role of the army


Like Tunisia it appears that the Army is doing its best to distance itself from the excesses of Mubarak's security thugs. While it is of course good to see or rather not the see two national armies gunning down there own population there are a few more Machiavellian reasons why the Army would take this "neutral like" position. Since the Army top brass naturally have links to the NDP regime this could be part of an attempt to deflect criticism from any crimes or morally suspect actions they have committed as an institution or individuals, they could simply think that Mubarak's chances for survival even if they successfully suppress the revolts to be nil and don't wish to tie there bloody hands to a lame duck Autocrat. Then of course there is the Iranian example to be considered. When the Shah's regime was crumbling away in 1979 he did deploy his army against his people and for a brief period was able to restore some order to the streets,unfortunately for the Beacon of the Aryans his large army was made up of ordinary Iranians who shared many of the protesters grievances and it wasn't long before his proud army disintegrated leaving him and his supporters without any leverage of the situation forcing a prompt and humiliating dash to the airports for the Iranian aristocracy. In short the Egyptian generals are smart enough to realise its not worth forcing the issue and are doing there best to achieve a compromise by evoking the national allegiance.

Of course Revolutions are nothing if not constantly in motion. By tomorrow or an hour after I hit the post it button the Egyptian could decide that a compromise isn't good enough, or that they can get external support from say Saudi Arabia wich definitely does not want the spread of people power in the middle east or the EU or Egypt and its armies best friend the United States. After all Egypt is the lynch pin of their middle east strategy and is a key supporter of the Israeli Apartheid program especially its collective punishment blockade of Gaza and Hamas.

The Roots of the Egyptian Revolt


This interview is important and deserves a bigger audience as it dispels the myth cultivated by much of the lazy "mainstream" media that Egypts discontent was a strange spontaneous copy cat of Tunisia. The deposing of Ben Ali was important not because it was a Revolution in the Arab but because it was a Revolution in the Arab world that worked. Egyptian angered at the brutality and corruption of Hosni Mubarak and the National Democratic Party has been simmering away since the latter took power in 1981 and continued and expanded the Draconian Emergency Law to crush opposition and plunder national assets to benefit his supporters. Nearly every day since then there have been strikes, protests both peaceful and violent, sit ins, petitions, rallies and flash mobs against Mubarak but the only UK outlet to regularly report any of that was the Morning Star.

Interview discusses the International (USA) considerations of the Revolts.


This interview does a good job of outlining the International context of the Revolts and raises some interesting thoughts on what the US response is likely to be. It also puts to rest the notion that the Muslim Brotherhood has masterminded a successful fundamentalist overthrow of a modern Westernised regime something we'll no doubt hear parroted from the right wing press in the coming days. After all if we can't count on the Daily Mail, Fox News et all to reminds us daily that Arabs are Muslims (the large denominational and Christian minorities present in virtually every state are never mentioned) and that Muslims have only one political agenda the Koran then what can we count on them for?