From the AP:
Bursts of heavy gunfire rained into Cairo’s Tahrir Square before dawn Thursday, killing at least three anti-government demonstrators among crowds still trying to hold the site after an assault by supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, according to a protest organizer.
Sustained bursts of automatic weapons fire and powerful single shots rattled into the square starting at around 4 a.m., and was continuing more than an hour later.
Protest organizer Mustafa el-Naggar said he saw the bodies of three dead protesters being carried toward an ambulance. He said the gunfire came from at least three locations off in the distance and that the Egyptian military, which has ringed the square with tank squads for days to try to keep some order, did not intervene…
Which tells me that there is a lot of force in Egypt which, while perhaps not wanting to keep Mubarak, doesn’t want to lose power and position. Got to remember that the way a Mubarak maintains himself in power is only partially through brutality – the other half the the equation is bribery of select parts of society. Those bribed parts don’t want to lose their place at the trough. The army is standing aside while thugs are killing and robbing – and some strong indications that the thugs are police officers; this could be a ploy to intimidate the crowds and thus allow a reassertion of Ruling Class control.
To be sure, a complete return to “normal” is probably out of the question – new forces are rising and they’ll want their piece of the pie (seen lots of “man on the street” quotes to the effect of “I’ve got a college degree and yet I only earn a pittance”; meaning that the problem isn’t Mubarak’s dictatorship, but the lack of material advancement, at least for some of the people out in the streets). Adjustments and accommodations will have to be made and Mubarak is almost certain to be gone some time soon (I doubt he’ll be allowed to hang around until the next election; but we’ll see). In the end, however, those who have appear to be doing quite a lot to ensure they continue having.
The sorta good news about this is that it might end up freezing out the Moslem Brotherhood. There might rise a coalition of people who are willing to slowly loosen the chains while keeping a lid on the Islamists. On the other hand, the MB seems pretty popular at least in some quarters and they might demand a share of power in return for getting off the streets…and even a small share of power is enough for a tightly organized, committed group to eventually take over the whole thing. Bottom line, this still doesn’t look to be coming out as a good result for the world.
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