Looking at the live news footage from Tahrir Square in Cairo right now...
it seems the ruling military council is forced to lie back in the force of the hundreds of thousands of peacefully protesting people, or to fight back and kill more of their own citizens.

One thing in Egypt is, the news agencies are allowed to arrive and report in the country, not in Syria.

The bad thing in Egypt is, the Muslim Brotherhood movement has announced it will boycott the protests (and the democratic movement) and thus seeding the religious clash in future.

In Syria it looks like Assad and his government is living the last weeks in power with not many friends abroad. If I were a President of any country I wouldn't like to rely only on the support of North Korea and China.

---

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

After writing the previous post I had some desperately fun time reading again the thread of Libya. Wrere are JohnnyBeGood, Jeech, Abcxyz, and the other opponents now?

---

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

To back up such a turmoil and sow chaos.

Right, no I am not -pity. There is not much anyone can do in order to deal with such a gross incongruity, is there? Shame on them.

J.J.,

The Egyptian revolution was incomplete when the military council took power from Mubarak. Sooner or later, the people were bound to realize it was a shell game. They had merely exchanged a heavy handed dictator for a heavy handed dictatorial council, promising elections. There would inevitably be an endless litany for postponing those elections. So, nothing had really changed.

If you are a member of the ruling council, you fear chaos, and so you want an orderly transition. You naturally want to control crowds and this leads to confrontations. You may do all of this with a genuine love of country. You fear the extremists blending in with the crowd.

Your actions may alienate those who genuinely wish for democracy along with the islamists that never really wanted democracy to begin with.


If you are a protester, military councils, juntas, call them what you will, don't have a good track record of actually relinquishing power. So, you demand change now, not later. You see their delays as a bid not for democracy, but an effort to consolidate their grip on authority. You protest from a genuine love of country. You fear the next Mubarak is blending in with the junta.

Your actions may lead to an overreaction by the military, and you will cause even those sincere members of the council that want orderly democratization to clamp down.


This can only end well if some bridge between genuine civilan reformers and enlightened military reformers can be made. Otherwise, there will be blood.

---

"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong". (Knight's Oath, Kingdom of Heaven)