From Reuters:
Police fought with thousands of Egyptians who defied a government ban on Wednesday to protest against President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year-old rule, firing rubber bullets and tear gas and dragging away demonstrators.
In central Cairo, demonstrators burned tires and hurled stones at police. In Suez, protesters torched a government building as protests intensified in other parts of the country…
If the security forces remain loyal to the government, then the government will prevail – and the thing about long-term dictatorships is that the people running the show tend to build up a cadre of people who can only live well as long as the regime is in power. That means that at least the mid and upper echelons of the security forces would lose out in a revolution, thus giving them a reason to fight the people. But, also, some times even one’s own position isn’t enough to keep up the fight…especially if it gets about that the top leaders are running away (we’ve had reports that Mubarak’s son has already fled the country).
I hope this works out for the best – there is not too much we can do about it. My larger worry is that my brothers and sisters in Egypt – the despised and much-oppressed Coptic Christians – will get hit hard no matter who comes out on top. The New Year’s Day massacre is fresh in memory, and stories that Egyptian Moslems stood as human shields for Christians after that event look greatly exaggerated, at best.
This is what comes from promoting “stability” rather than liberty and human decency. Let this be the final lesson we have to learn in this matter – never, ever back a regime which does not live up to our Declaration of Independence. We hold that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed – no government which doesn’t have this should obtain American aid or trade. Have done with these petty tyrants.
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