Posted on 02/11/2011 3:41:44 AM PST by SE Mom
From the BBC:
-A huge crowd has gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square for Friday prayers and a mass demonstration against Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
-Mr Mubarak defied protesters on Thursday, vowing to hold on to power until presidential elections in September.
-His speech drew a strong response from US President Barack Obama, who said Egypt needed a "clear and unequivocal" transition of power.
I am the one bleeding from the mouth ... I pray I am forgiven by All. You have been informative ... as has everyone else here.
Don’t you wonder if it could happen here, especially with all the illegal immigrants that do not share the same values as the majority of Americans.
I don’t know what to make out of all of this. I just remember how bad Iran turned out, and I’m very nervous about this situation.
Thank you. Did you see what Mom just posted? Chills.
Speaking of Feb. 11 and it’s significance to muslims, I just learned Sarah Palin’s birthday is Feb. 11! Talk about freaky coincidences. Could she be the one to break the hold of this blight on the world? Interesting thought, anyway.
I am angry as well.
Oh my huge news if true.
Some interesting tidbits from Hot Air:
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/02/11/breaking-mubarak-out/
Update: One of the cold comforts about military dominance in Egypt is that it makes a Muslim Brotherhood takeover unlikely, at least in the short term. The army simply has too much at stake — especially financially — to let Islamists spoil their racket. The downside of that, though? It has too much at stake to let Egyptian entrepreneurs spoil it either, which means economic stagnation and political discontent for years to come.
Fred Kaplan:
As in many undemocratic countries, the military is more than just the military. Egypt’s officer corps is said to own or operate vast networks of commercial enterprises, including water, construction, cement, olive oil, the hotel and gasoline industries—in all, about one-third of the country’s economy—as well as vast chunks of seaside property…
The army’s material interests don’t mesh so well with the premises of a thriving middle-class society. And the absence of such a society—the combination of large numbers of well-educated young people and few jobs to suit their talents—has no doubt fueled these last two weeks of protest.
That same WikiLeaks cable from the U.S. embassy in Cairo reported that the military views efforts at privatization “as a threat to its economic position, and therefore generally opposes economic reforms.” To the extent the military does retain power in Egypt, the people’s “rising expectations” may be frustrated, regardless of the outcome of this current clash. Whatever happens in the coming days and weeks, Egypt, once the emblem of Arab stability, might be locked in the dynamics of revolution for a long time to come.
...
Update:
A mystery solved, maybe: Richard Engel claims that senior Egyptian military leaders expected Mubarak to quit yesterday and were “furious” when he didn’t, going so far as to threaten to resign and join the protests if he didn’t do so today. True, or self-serving spin after the fact aimed at proving that they were on the people’s side all along?
I am with Sarah fully in my spirit. Pray for Sarah, Todd, and their loved ones’ safety and protection everyday. SE Mom Thank You for the update.
It is my opinion that it could happen here in the same way it has happened in Tunisia and Egypt—by the provoking of communist sympathizers to the “disenfranchised” of our country—another words... SEUI, Code Pink, ACORN,AFL-CIO, etc. etc. etc.
It is also my opinion that conservatives must remain steadfastly PEACEFUL yet visual and vocal in opposition to this tiny element in America that would seek to overrun us all. WE MUST STAND STRONG, STEADFAST, AND UNMOVABLE. (I Cor. 15:58)
Good will win. We KNOW that.
Thank you for saying so. It’s okay to feel this way, I think. “Be angry and sin not.” That’s hard to do sometimes, for me!
The contributions from everyone has been beyond great. The longer I stay, the more impressed with FReepers, I am. Anger is good sometimes ColdOne. Passion is lacking in this day and age by many. Ike when I think of controlled passion and anger, I think of you. ColdOne, Ike may be our future, if luck is with us.
Oh,my.
Interesting indeed, thx
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner
Just Asking
February 11, 2011 1:29 P.M. By Michael Walsh
In the midst of all the euphoria (however possibly misplaced) in Egypt, some rude queries:
1) Why were some elements of the American media essentially cheerleading the revolution, as if it were an indisputably good thing? No one has the slightest idea how this is all going to play out, but wasn’t it just a bit unseemly to openly root for an end to an Arab government that has kept the peace with Israel and has been a dependable U.S. ally? Or did the media’s sports-analogy template and need for a narrative climax override its “objectivity”?
2) Why do James Clapper and Leon Panetta still have their jobs? Could their performances yesterday possibly be any more embarrassing? Once again the crack cadres in Langley have been blindsided by events (see: Soviet Union, end of), while the director of national intelligence badly needs to read Andy McCarthy’s The Grand Jihad.
3) Rhetorical bonus question: Is there no penalty for failure in this administration?
Oh, puh-leeeze —
{cross-post}
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2672270/posts
Germany’s Merkel: A Day Of Great Joy In Egypt
Wall Street Journal ^ | February 11, 2011
Posted on Friday, February 11, 2011 12:18:32 PM by LonelyCon
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation marked “a day of great joy” for Egypt, adding that she hoped a smooth transition and free elections will follow soon.
“I wish the people a government free of corruption and censorship,” Merkel said. She said the military’s stewardship of the country should lead to free elections and that a new government should support Israel’s security.
“We expect from a future Egyptian government that peace in the Middle East will be sought, that treaties with Israel will be honored and that Israel’s security will be guaranteed.”
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Love it.
Picture Penguins of Madagascar when thinking of the media, “Smile and wave boys, smile and wave.”
I am more frustrated than angry. It is mind numbing for me to see all these people think they will have democracy.
They have no doubt “been had” up to this point in my opinion, but I still hold out hope that they will see through the fog of this mess, and carve out of it a better life in the end. How could they live surrounded by so many reminders of times past and not know that anyone with will can bring life from the sand? Or work shoulder-to-shoulder with Coptic Christians and not see what blessings a spirit of determination and faith in God can bring? We may be witnessing a lemons to lemonade moment. I pray, that, anyway. But at the moment, it’s not looking good.
” It is mind numbing for me to see all these people think they will have democracy. “
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2672280/posts
Mubarak Slammed U.S. in Phone Call With Israeli Lawmaker (Predicts rise of radical Islam)
Reuters ^ | Friday, February 11, 2011 | Jeffrey Heller
Posted on Friday, February 11, 2011 12:47:28 PM by kristinn
Hosni Mubarak had harsh words for the United States and what he described as its misguided quest for democracy in the Middle East in a telephone call with an Israeli lawmaker a day before he quit as Egypt’s president.
The legislator, former cabinet minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said on Israel TV Friday he came away from the 20-minute conversation Thursday with the feeling the 82-year-old leader realized “it was the end of the Mubarak era.”
“He had very tough things to say about the United States,” said Ben-Eliezer, a member of the center-left Labor Party who has held talks with Mubarak on numerous occasions while serving in various Israeli coalition governments.
“He gave me a lesson in democracy and said: ‘We see the democracy the United States spearheaded in Iran and with Hamas, in Gaza, and that’s the fate of the Middle East,’” Ben-Eliezer said.
“’They may be talking about democracy but they don’t know what they’re talking about and the result will be extremism and radical Islam,’” he quoted Mubarak as saying.
SNIP
“He contended the snowball (of civil unrest) won’t stop in Egypt and it wouldn’t skip any Arab country in the Middle East and in the Gulf.
“He said ‘I won’t be surprised if in the future you see more extremism and radical Islam and more disturbances — dramatic changes and upheavals,” Ben-Eliezer added.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
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