Tunisia has just entered revolution mode, President booted..

An amazing movie. Supposedly it was requiring watching for American military leaders in Iraq so they could try to avoid the fate of the French occupiers.

 

My brother in law as an ex special forces medic working as a contractor used to train the Saudi combat medics. He says many of the troops would like to overthrow the King, who makes no distinction between the treasury and his bank account. It is only natural that after a bit of education the commoners get restless.

 

I have been to Tunisia. Which is the other nisia?

 

Posting the turth? You are a posting turd.

 

LOL, yet you supported the Iraq war

 

This reminds me a lot of our policies when we were fighting the Commies.

Support, re-instate, and prop up dictators till they get kicked out for good, insuring that the resulting government has no warm feelings for us.

Deja vu all over again...

 

OH! Oh! good thing I don't tattle to the administrators.

 

a timely analysis I think

which brings me to my next question: why cant Americans just stop worrying and love the empire? There seems to be a tremendous hypocrisy in continuing to b**** about an American-centric world designed specifically to maximize the benefits of being America (or an American), yet continuously reaping the benefits of such system. No?

Bottom line: America reaps DIRECT BENEFITS (and very small costs) from supporting and propping up dictators in the uber-strategically important Middle East. Democratization would have serious negative consequences for America.

 

Interesting news out of Egypt... I doubt this 'revolt' will be able to topple the government, but still quite a large protest for something organized on Facebook.





http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12272836

Cairo protest: Clashes on Egypt's 'day of revolt'

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Police in Cairo have been using tear gas and water cannon to try to quell rare anti-government protests.

Thousands have joined the protests after an internet campaign inspired by the uprising in Tunisia.

They marched through Cairo and other areas chanting anti-government slogans, after activists called for a "day of revolt" in a web message.

Weeks of unrest in Tunisia eventually toppled President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month.

Protests are uncommon in Egypt, which President Hosni Mubarak has ruled since 1981, tolerating little dissent.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her administration supported "the fundamental right of expression and assembly" and urged all parties "to exercise restraint".

She added that Washington believed the Egyptian government was "stable" and "looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people".

The events in Cairo were co-ordinated on a Facebook page - tens of thousands of supporters clicked on the page to say they would take part.

Reports said the social networking site Twitter had been blocked in Egypt and that mobile phone networks in the Cairo area were down.

The Swedish-based website Bambuser, which streams video from mobile phones, said it had been blocked in Egypt. On its blog, it accused Egyptian officials of trying to control the news agenda.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo said rallies had been held in several parts of the capital, and the turnout had been more than the organisers could have hoped.

Police were taken aback by the anger of the crowd and let protesters make their way to the parliament building, he says.

There police regrouped in full riot gear with tear gas and water cannon and temporarily drove the crowd back. However, protesters threw stones and pushed the police back until they were on the run.

Protests also broke out in other areas, including the eastern city of Ismailiya and the northern port city of Alexandria.

In Alexandria, witnesses said thousands joined the protests, some chanting: "Revolution, revolution, like a volcano, against Mubarak the coward."

'Nothing to fear'

In Cairo's Tahrir Square, demonstrators attacked a police water cannon vehicle, opening the driver's door and ordering the man out of the vehicle.

Officers beat back protesters with batons as they tried to break the police cordons to join the main demonstration, it added.

One protester, 43-year-old lawyer Tareq el-Shabasi, told AP: "I came here today willing to die, I have nothing to fear."

The AFP news agency reported that protesters had gathered outside the Supreme Court holding large signs that read: "Tunisia is the solution."

They then broke through lines of police and began to march through the streets, chanting: "Down with Mubarak."

Some chants referred to Mr Mubarak's son Gamal, who some analysts believe is being groomed as his father's successor. "Gamal, tell your father Egyptians hate you," they shouted.

The organisers rallied support saying the protest would focus on torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment, calling it "the beginning of the end".

"It is the end of silence, acquiescence and submission to what is happening in our country," they said in comments carried by Reuters news agency.

"It will be the start of a new page in Egypt's history - one of activism and demanding our rights."

George Ishaq, an Egyptian opposition leader, said security forces had been "confounded".

"In the end, we will get our rights because this is just the beginning," he said.

"This will not end. Our anger will continue over the coming days. We will put forth our conditions and requests until the system responds and leaves."

Disillusioned

Egypt has many of the same social and political problems that brought about the unrest in Tunisia - rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption.

However, the population of Egypt has a much lower level of education than Tunisia. Illiteracy is high and internet penetration is low.

There are deep frustrations in Egyptian society, our Cairo correspondent says, yet Egyptians are almost as disillusioned with the opposition as they are with the government; even the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamist movement, seems rudderless.

While one opposition leader, Mohamed ElBaradei, called on Egyptians to take part in these protests, the Muslim Brotherhood has been more ambivalent.

Our correspondent adds that Egypt is widely seen to have lost power, status and prestige in the three decades of President Mubarak's rule.

 

have to LOL at the situation

"Our country is suffering from rampant inflation!"

"LET'S THROW MONEY AT EVERYONE!"

 

More Egypt news: (More at link)

It's always interesting to watch the two-faced nature of the US in these situations. Just like Tunisia, expect a lot of lip service about "support for democracies" and "power to the people" while the massive role of US military and economic support in maintaining the dictatorial governments being ousted is conveniently glossed over. The truth that maintaining dictators and callously preventing numerous populist uprisings has been the USA's modus operandi since WWII* has been impressively hidden from the American citizenry. This "hidden agenda" is slowly losing it's covert nature as of late however - unfortunately, the new problem is that although the people might be more aware of our ugly "other side", they just don't care.

*Obviously the USA has been doing this well before WWII, but prior to WWII we were very brazen about it. The "end of colonialism" has made maintaining colonies a far more secretive business.

 

I always have to laugh a little when I see someone describe Egypt as "stable." The country is far from stable. It's a powder keg and has been so for decades, kept from exploding by the ruling elite and the military that foists a sham democracy upon the world. The people there know exactly how "democratic" Egypt is. Someday, it'll blow sky high, unless the Egyptian people, and the rest of the region, the US and her allies, are extremely lucky. The best outcome would be free and fair elections that produce a secular democracy. Don't hold your breath.

 

I can appreciate attacking the messenger as a diversion, but the truth is you did support the invasion of Iraq. You should be unhappy with the increased Islamicism that this is resulting in as the largely secular Sadam is replaced by Sadr and others.

 

We need to go back to colonializing, these piss ant countries can't handle themselves....and it is destabilizing the world....



DD

 

Overthrowing democracies that don't help the bottom line for American corporations has pretty much been American policy forever.

Sadly the original article was pretty selective in urging us to back dictators overs democrats if seemingly in our interest . In Iran for instance we overthrew a relatively moderate elected guy, Mossadegh sp? who was viewed as threatening our oil companies and put in the Shah, whose overthrow led to Ayatollah Khoomeini.

 

Can someon explain to me how supporting brutal torture loving dictators in the Middle East, just cause they do nice oil deals with us or Israel likes them makes the Arab/Muslim masses more moderate. I never have understood the argument that torture or drones for that matter will make the locals more moderate in their religion or attitudes toward America or even Israel for that matter.