The Tunisian uprising has by some been given the name “Jasmine Revolution” - in line with all the other colour and flower revolutions. Has the Egyptian been given a colour or flower yet?
It’ll probably end up being something lame like “the Pyramid Revolution.”
The last five minutes have shown that it may end up being called the “Bomber Harris Memorial Operation and Seminar”.
Does anyone read Arabic? This seems to be a critically important document on how to handle the protests, from the government side. Using ‘thugs and chaos’.
Report:
The military has arrested Habib el Adly, the former Minister of Interior, for ordering snipers to fire on protestors yesterday which led to 15+ deaths.
I’m not disagreeing with your observation, I’m just not sure what they should be showing us or saying that they aren’t. I’m watching MSNBC right now and they seem to be doing a decent job. I don’t doubt BBC would be doing a better job.
Report:
Muslim Brotherhood reports they agree with other opposition parties for El Baradei to lead the interim government while rejecting the new government put forward by Mubarak.
Report, Al Jazeera:
Egyptian army has just told the crowd gathering at Tahrir Square that military will not go against the people.
Well this situation is at critical mass! Sounds like the Army is doing the responsible thing too. It really could have been much, much worse.
If Mubarak steeped down and left Suleiman as President with the plan to have elections in six months - would that quell the protests?
They are three options
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Mubarak resigns and is replaced by an interim government. “Interim” in this case can mean an undefined period
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A crackdown perhaps by using Interior Ministry Troops
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Do nothing, by far the worst option.
A decision has to be made and within the next few hours. Otherwise you will have anarchy and who know who will come to power. In that case even a vicious crackdown would be preferable to a vaccum.
The way Egypt works, and the way things look, an attempt by govenrment loyalists to crack down on anything would result in a civil war with the regular army opposing the Ministry of the Interior. In Egypt, the Army is the kingmaker and has popular support.
And with the military on the side of the people, 2 isn’t happening. At least, for long. Edit: Quite so, RickJay.
Three isn’t an option that’ll last all that long.
I just hope the Bedouin don’t take out the Suez Canal.
But we have a day or two, not the next few hours, I think
Sure but the army might agree to a crackdown if the anarchy which is spreading persists.
Then a crackdown might actually be the best outcome short of Mubarak resigning.
How much of that anarchy is on the part of the protesters and how much is agitprop and false-flag operations by Interior to get the Army to step in? I’ve read that the protesters are actually organizing to maintain order in individual neighborhoods, and that they’ve captured a fair number of looters who were found with Dept. of Interior (i.e., secret police) IDs and government-issue weapons.
It wasn’t really publicized, but Bedouins killed 12 Egyptian policemen in a gunfight in the Sinai yesterday. In response, Israel gave its tacit approval for Egypt to move Army forces into the area for the first time since its withdrawal.
I have modified the title from the original
Will yesterday’s Tunisian revolution inspire similar actions in other nations?
to reflect the change in direction that this thread has taken in the last couple of days.
[ /Modding ]
Oh, come on - can’t you come up with a better title? I’d suggest: “Egyptian Revolution - End of De Nile”
If the Muslim Brotherhood supports El Baradei, that’s probably the ideal situation for those of us in the West who want to see a Western style democracy in Egypt. The issue, of course, is that if he’s heading the interim government, he’s probably ineligible to stand for general election.
I’m curious as to why it might make him ineligible? Been enjoying this thread so far.