Having lived in Egypt, I wondered when the tradition of bussing thousands of government supporting Arab Socialist party members to Tahrir Square would occur. A major insult is to call an Egyptian a “gamous”, the poor plodding water buffalo. However, it is true that the Egyptian is not noted for his persistence. A perfect example was the Yom Kippur War when the Egyptian Army crossed the Suez Canal, forced an Israeli retreat, and then didn;t seem to know what to do next. Recall, that on the second day of major street presence the police disappeared from the street. I felt at the time that the Ministry of Interior forces were sitting back, taking pictures and writing names in their little black books. I thought then that there would be one hell of a lot of students breaking rocks in the Western Desert a year from now. While it appears that Mubarak is through, the military is not. And if one thinks they are ready to give up sixty years of perks to the Muslim Brotherhood, an institution that they have fought more on and off for sixty years, there seems to be a lot of wishful thinking. As for the presence of Muslim Brothers in the military, the Ikhwan begaan the infiltration of the military in the forties — see Anwar Sadat. By the mid nineteen fifties they had cleaned them out, and the military leadership has been en garde against the Brotherhood ever since. I have a hunch that a week from now people will ask, what happened to all the protestors?
I feel like a thug myself for wanting Mubarak to stay in power until September so that a viable democratic, pro-western candidate can emerge and get organized well enough to have a chance to win.
Am I wrong?