Egyptian Army Acting Like a Bunch of Hippies
Contrary to popular American opinion, Egypt is not just a mythical place invented to enliven the occasional history textbook and Brendan Fraser flick. In fact, it is a real nation with real people and a real army. The people are currently doing something very normal and common that has occurred throughout history (i.e., attempting to overthrow their government.)
But the army is up to some kind of weird shenanigans we can’t quite fathom…
The Egyptian Army announced Monday for the first time that it would not fire on protesters, even as tens of thousands of people gathered in central Liberation Square for a seventh day to shout for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. WHOA. Whooooa. An armed branch of the government that refuses to fire on protesters? Is this… some kind of elaborate prank?
Sure, the protesters and the army seem to be united in their distaste for Mubarak’s triple-decade dictatorship, but… isn’t it the job of armed government forces to fire on unarmed protesters? Haven’t these people heard of Kent State, the Seattle WTO protests, the Boston Massacre, Russian Bloody Sunday, Irish Bloody Sunday, the Tianenmen Square Massacre, the Freedom Flotilla and pretty much every day in the lives of dissidents in most nations on earth?
Read the rest of this here
WSJ: Egypt Protests Continue as Military Stands By
Egypt was engulfed in a fifth day of protests on Saturday but an attempt by President Hosni Mubarak to salvage his 30-year rule by firing his cabinet and calling out the army appeared to backfire as troops and demonstrators fraternized and called for the president himself to resign.
While some protesters clashed with police, army tanks expected to disperse the crowds in central Cairo and in the northern city of Alexandria instead became rest points and even, on occasion, part of the protests as anti-Mubarak graffiti were scrawled on them without interference from soldiers.
“Leave Hosni, you, your son and your corrupted party!” declared the graffiti on one tank as soldiers invited demonstrators to climb aboard and have their photographs taken with them.
“This is the revolution of all the people,”
