Egypt in chaos

Walk like an Egyptian

The news is filled with pictures of men wailing in the streets standing on tanks and defying police. This is all due to a dictatorship that has lasted for over 30 Years. President Mubarak has been in power too long and the people defiantly and violenty protest his rule. President Mubarak is the successor to millitary dictator  Anwar Al-Sadat who was assasinated during a millitary parade that left the entire country shaken in 1981. Mubarak was his successor and has somehow remained in power over several assasination attempts on his life. This isolated Mubarak further and made him recusive and paranoid of any public appearances. Can't really blame the guy.

I can certinatly blame him for all of the violence that we have seen over the past couple weeks. Mubarak has demonstrated his inability to be a leader and rule. The president who is in his 80's has announced that he will not seek re-election in september. This at first was seen as a victory but it left most peole unsatisfied. The Egyptian people continue their protests as they call for him to step down immediatly and hold special elections. The people cry out for equality, Job opportunity, civil rights and Democracy to be the rule of law.

Democracy is the prefered direction we would like to see the Egyptian government  take. Although that seems to be a long road to walk for the Egyptian people. Groups like the Muslim Brotherhood are at work in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is a secret muslim organization that dates back to 1929 that calls for Islamist style government and sharia law. Sharia Law is condemned in Saudi Arabia and practiced in places like Iran and the was practiced in Afghanistan before the American invasion.

It's hard to predict how democracy will divide Egypt as supporters of Mubarak were reported to be responsible for heavy machine gun fire in the capital last night as protestors defied marshal law and curfew.  Reports of battles between protestors and government supporters for the first time were reported all across Egypt.

I applaud President Barack Obama for calling upon Mubarak to step down and hold special elections.  He has done the right thing by speaking out on a situation that needs a calming authoritive voice. Obama has also done the right thing on making it clear to President Mubarak that aide and assistance to Egypt recovering from this destructive violence will depend upon how co-operative Mubarak will be with the incoming transitional government.

This transitional Government doesn't even exist yet. In my humble opinion no progress or ground can be made on resolution before Mubarak steps down and the violence and protests stop. The "Angry Mid-East Crowd" is usually a staple for news agencies to jump on and get pictures to sell ad's but in this situation it has turned on them. Anderson Cooper of CNN and his camera crew was attacked and assaulted as they attempted to make their way threw Cairo demonstrators. Violence upon journalists is universally condemed by almost every country as they should not have an agenda other than too report facts.

Egypt is important to the entire world. How the next few weeks and months are going to unfold will set the tone for future Middle-east relations. If we see a successful Democracy come out of Egypt that is fair and efficient, this will embolden those in other countries who feel that the chains of theocracry or dictatorship need to be forever broken.