The World Saw The Egypt Uprising End February 11th, But It Actually Ended January 30th

Mubarak ordered Tienanmen-style massacre of demonstrators, Army refused. This was a really interesting day without this context, but now it all makes sense.. Excerpts:

Buried in this Robert Fisk report for The Independent is a startling account of the Egyptian army refusing to move with tanks against the Tahrir Square protesters on January 30.
..(This is an excerpt from Fisk's report)But the critical moment came on the evening of 30 January when, it is now clear, Mubarak ordered the Egyptian Third Army to crush the demonstrators in Tahrir Square with their tanks after flying F-16 fighter bombers at low level over the protesters.
Many of the senior tank commanders could be seen tearing off their headsets – over which they had received the fatal orders – to use their mobile phones. They were, it now transpires, calling their own military families for advice. Fathers who had spent their lives serving the Egyptian army told their sons to disobey, that they must never kill their own people.
..
.. when General Hassan al-Rawani told the massive crowds yesterday evening that "everything you want will be realised – all your demands will be met", the people cried back: "The army and the people stand together – the army and the people are united. The army and the people belong to one hand." (It's like they knew..)

Mubarak, indeed, behaved the only way he knew how: Crush any opposition with brutal force. He was stopped by the collective integrity within his military ranks, those moral enough to realize the inequality of one man's power, and how he would so freely use that power against their countrymen, their friends, their family.. And they said "No."
But Mubarak tried. Again, he had no choice. He is mentally inflexible, and knew no other way to behave.

Also: Is Mubarak dead, hoax dead, or just much more close?

All Hail The Peoples' Peaceful Revolution!

Amazing. I went to bed at 4a.m. last night with a terrible, ominous feeling, fully expecting to wake up to a full scale Mubarak blow-back in the form of some globally broadcast massacre. It's a testament to the collective will and temperament of the Egyptian people that they weren't, throughout the course of this uprising, baited into any kind of violent response. The demonstrators were resolute, the crowds got bigger, the class distinctions blurred, the working infrastructure ground to a halt, and finally, Mubarak had no alternative but to step down. The way in which Egyptian society handled this crisis was note perfect, and will be studied for years to come, both by advocates of non-violent resistance, and those wanting to crush those future movements.

In the coming weeks, the Egyptians(along with Israel, the rest of the Middle East, and the World) will have a host of issues to contend with, including fixing the damage done to the economy, how the Military will transition power , what form of government will emerge, and what the dynamics of the region will finally become.

But for the next few days, let the Egyptians celebrate what they have given themselves and the entire world: Hope upon hope for a happy ending under the most impossible of circumstances. The rest of us are indebted to your courage and strength. Thank you.

Egypt: Fluid And Flammable

Egypt protesters vow massive demonstrations Excerpts:

Egypt's people-power protesters, reeling with disillusion and anger after President Hosni Mubarak disappointed their hopes he was about to resign, planned massive new demonstrations on Friday that may test the army's loyalties.

The increasingly sour confrontation after 17 days of unrest has raised fears of violence in the most populous Arab nation, a key U.S. ally in an oil-rich region where the chance of disorder spreading to other repressive states has troubled world markets.
..
"My great fear is that if the demonstrations don't end that the military begins to split over this. You may have younger commanders who don't want to go down with the ship," said Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. deputy national security adviser.

"If the demonstrations build ... then you once again face the army with the choice they have sought to avoid -- put the demonstrations down or get rid of Mubarak. They have managed so far not to make that choice, but if the people stay in the streets then they are going to have to make that choice."
..
Nobel Peace laureate and leading democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei predicted "Egypt will explode" and called on the military to intervene in response to Mubarak's refusal to step down.

"The Army must save the country now," he said in a Twitter post.

Mubarak's speech re-enforced the fact that he's mentally inflexible, and possibly suffering from dementia.. Or he's completely insane; either/or..

It looks like Obama is back on The People's side, but won't be doing too much about it, save a pronouncement here and there..

Egypt Strikes Continue As Doctors, Lawyers Join Protests Good news, especially if pro-Mubarak thugs attack the demonstrators.. The doctors can patch them up, and the lawyers can gather affidavits on the spot!

Meanwhile in Europe.. EU leaders call for government change in Egypt as Mubarak vows to stay

Egypt's economy is shaky as hell at the moment, and investors along with the Central Bank are getting a little freaked out.. But I guess losing 310 million dollars a day would cause some anxiety..

Omar Suleiman: Not nice.

The crowds are already gathering for today's protest. Everybody seems to be holding their breath: How big will this demonstration be, and can it remain peaceful?

Egypt Update: February 10, 2011

The People aren't intimidated: The Protests are getting larger..

The demonstrators are pissed about Mubarak and family's 70 billion dollar fortune and workers country wide are going Norma Rae in response, and the Really Poor started burning stuff. Excerpts:

Strikes erupted in a breadth of sectors _ among railway and bus workers, state electricity staff and service technicians at the Suez Canal, in factories manufacturing textiles, steel and beverages and at least one hospital.

In one of the flashpoints of unrest Wednesday, some 8,000 protesters, mainly farmers, set barricades of flaming palm trees in the southern province of Assiut. They blocked the main highway and railway to Cairo to complain of bread shortages. They then drove off the governor by pelting his van with stones.

Hundreds of slum dwellers in the Suez Canal city of Port Said set fire to part of the governor's headquarters in anger over lack of housing.
..

Egyptians have been infuriated by newspaper reports that the Mubarak family has amassed billions, and perhaps tens of billions of dollars in wealth while, according to the World Bank, about 40 percent of the country's 80 million people live below or near the poverty line of $2 a day. The family's true net worth is not known.

And yet, The Regime refuses to budge.. That will only work against them, later..

The Obama administration's response sucks, as it seems to be returning to how the U.S. normally deals with the fall of a dictatorship: Replace it with another. No Change, there.. Really disappointing excerpts:

After a good start, the Obama administration's response to the democratic revolution in Egypt has begun to exude the odor of betrayal. Now distancing itself from the essential demand of the protesters that the dictator must go, the administration has fallen back on the sordid option of backing a new and improved dictatorship. Predictably, it is one guided by a local strongman long entrusted by the CIA, Vice President Omar Suleiman, described by U.S. officials in the WikiLeaks cables as a "Mubarak consigliere." The script is out of an all-too-familiar playbook: Pick this longtime chief of Egyptian intelligence who has consistently done our bidding in matters of torture and retrofit him as a modern democratic leader. But this time the Egyptian street will not meekly go along.

Anyone else perplexed that the new hero of Egypt is a Google executive?



Not too much follow up on this one, but I'm guessing it has something to do with Egypt or the Middle East..

Egypt Today, February 8, 2011

Egypt Talks Start on Sidelining Mubarak With Protest in Day 12
Bad sign: U.S. supports gradual reform in Egypt
Egypt's new cabinet meets as protests continue
Greater impacts: Mideast change: The scenarios is less about Egypt and more about Israel.
Change "partly" to "mostly," and you're on-track.. Egypt's unrest tied partly to high food prices
Hezbollah leader says Egypt protests will transform Mideast by pulling nation away from Israel

Egypt: Telecoms Are Tattling..

Vodafone: Egypt forced us to send text messages Excerpts:

Egyptian authorities forced Vodafone to broadcast pro-government text messages during the protests that have rocked the country, the U.K.-based mobile company said Thursday.

Micro-blogging site Twitter has been buzzing with screen grabs from Vodafone's Egyptian customers showing text messages sent over the course of the demonstrations against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old regime.

A text message received Sunday by an Associated Press reporter in Egypt appealed to the country's "honest and loyal men to confront the traitors and criminals and protect our people and honor." Another urged Egyptians to attend a pro-Mubarak rally in Cairo on Wednesday. The first was marked as coming from "Vodafone." The other was signed: "Egypt Lovers."
And:
The company also said its competitors — including Egypt's Mobinil and the United Arab Emirates' Etisalat — were doing the same. Etisalat, known formally as Emirates Telecommunications Corp., declined comment.

Vodafone said the texts had been sent "since the start of the protests," which kicked off more than a week ago. Vodafone did not immediately return an e-mail asking why the company waited nearly 10 days to complain publicly. Its statement was released only after repeated inquiries by the AP.

The U.S. is dancing as fast as it can, at the moment, and it seems clear that Mubarak will either go quickly, or hunker down and go violently. Everything about Egypt is politically grey: Mubarak is an American ally, but a non-democratic authoritarian. The protesters might be pro-democratic or (booga booga) Muslim Brotherhood, so we aren't sure who to root for: The dictator, or the potential terrorists?

This isn't too much of an exaggeration, is it, considering America's complete loss of nuanced thought.. It will be interesting, if not maddening, I'm sure, to see how both the situation evolves, and how American and Western discourse evolves in their reaction to said events.

At this point in time, every day feels a little more fluid than the last.