What's going on in Egypt?

[Eddie Bravo]

The U.S. military will prolly set up shop at the site of the pyramids

[Chris Herzog]

The U.S. military will prolly set up shop at the site of the pyramids

Maybe we'll finally see whats under the Sphinx's paw.

[James Davis]

I think it's wonderful....the protests. This has been so powerful that both Jordan and Yemen are re-shuffling their governments to prevent ouster in their own countries. Due to our media we believe that the only 2 options for middle eastern countries are Theocracy or Dictatorship. The other option is democracy and this is what the people want. Egypt has a constitution...the problem is mubarack came into office under a state of emergency and hasn't taken it off in 30 years. He has took away freedoms and kept the resources we supplied him with for himself. He has only presented heavily rigged elections and the people have had enough.

Imagine if President Bush had've tried to suspend elections and have a 3rd term, we would have wrecked -ish! They've been dealing with this for 30 years. Bush hoped to destabilize the region to bring democracy in through the military..that didn't work..but here we are..by the will of the people. Egypt is pretty mainstream and I do not see them becoming some type of militant state or dictatorship.

[nickomang]

best coverage is on al Jazeera (frankly it's one of the few unbiased sources of real journalism left)

english.aljazeera.net

but, yeah, james is spot on about "imagine if president bush had tried to suspend elections..." basically hosni mubarak has been in power for 30 years and having watched similar uprisings in yemen and tunisia the egyptian people took to the streets to demand he step down and democratic elections be held. the "pro-government" forces that have violently clashed with the protesters (because the military refused to respond with force) were paid by the mubarak government. in other words, they're not mubarak supporters but rather hired guns. now they're trying to remove journalists from the country which suggests, sadly, that mubarak is planning a response that he doesn't want the world to see... scary stuff. i'm proud of the people of egypt and terribly worried about the fate that may await them. then again the uprising could be a success. hard to tell at this point. mubarak has dismissed his government and said he wouldn't run again in the next "election" but that's different from stepping down which is what is being demanded now. in other words, they are relatively minor concessions that may be simply a means for him to buy time while he figures out how to crush the uprising.

please correct me if i've gotten any of this wrong.

[Andrew Maxwell]

I think it's wonderful....the protests. This has been so powerful that both Jordan and Yemen are re-shuffling their governments to prevent ouster in their own countries. Due to our media we believe that the only 2 options for middle eastern countries are Theocracy or Dictatorship. The other option is democracy and this is what the people want. Egypt has a constitution...the problem is mubarack came into office under a state of emergency and hasn't taken it off in 30 years. He has took away freedoms and kept the resources we supplied him with for himself. He has only presented heavily rigged elections and the people have had enough.

Imagine if President Bush had've tried to suspend elections and have a 3rd term, we would have wrecked -ish! They've been dealing with this for 30 years. Bush hoped to destabilize the region to bring democracy in through the military..that didn't work..but here we are..by the will of the people. Egypt is pretty mainstream and I do not see them becoming some type of militant state or dictatorship.

+1
Power to the people!

[nickomang]

here's a pretty comprehensive update
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/c...d_of_february/

[Jason Hyatt]

best coverage is on al Jazeera (frankly it's one of the few unbiased sources of real journalism left)

english.aljazeera.net

but, yeah, james is spot on about "imagine if president bush had tried to suspend elections..." basically hosni mubarak has been in power for 30 years and having watched similar uprisings in yemen and tunisia the egyptian people took to the streets to demand he step down and democratic elections be held. the "pro-government" forces that have violently clashed with the protesters (because the military refused to respond with force) were paid by the mubarak government. in other words, they're not mubarak supporters but rather hired guns. now they're trying to remove journalists from the country which suggests, sadly, that mubarak is planning a response that he doesn't want the world to see... scary stuff. i'm proud of the people of egypt and terribly worried about the fate that may await them. then again the uprising could be a success. hard to tell at this point. mubarak has dismissed his government and said he wouldn't run again in the next "election" but that's different from stepping down which is what is being demanded now. in other words, they are relatively minor concessions that may be simply a means for him to buy time while he figures out how to crush the uprising.

please correct me if i've gotten any of this wrong.

I think you're pretty much spot on.

I think the reason we've seen so much caution from the U.S. govt in how they're portraying this and talking about it is because we don't have a very good reputation around the world for helping out with democracies. We have a tendency to *help* install "democratic" leaders who are nothing of the sort (Iran in 1953, 90% of South America, Afghanistan, etc). We like democracy except when the people pick someone we don't like (e.g. the people of Palestine electing Hamas) then we tend to get a little more involved, usually through the CIA, and the people hate us for it. So we get one more country to add to the ever-growing list that hates us. I would like to hold out hope that we'll avoid that this time but we've done it so... many... times... I dunno. I have a not-so-good feeling about this and not because of the people of Egypt. I'm much more worried about the people of Washington.

[chronic_jiujitsu]

My vote.. Egypt ends up becoming a muslim nation. Israel becomes surrounded. The muslim nations declare war on israel. America steps in to help Israel and then other countries step in to stop us. Eventually world war 3 is underway, we end up seeing the biggest death toll in human history.. and somehow Israel pulls through and takes some names. after the dust settles, all the surrounding countries get their butt handed to them and Israel becomes the new superpower.

[Chris Herzog]

My vote.. Egypt ends up becoming a muslim nation. Israel becomes surrounded. The muslim nations declare war on israel. America steps in to help Israel and then other countries step in to stop us. Eventually world war 3 is underway, we end up seeing the biggest death toll in human history.. and somehow Israel pulls through and takes some names. after the dust settles, all the surrounding countries get their butt handed to them and Israel becomes the new superpower.

ok thats slighly morbid.

[chronic_jiujitsu]

ok thats slighly morbid.

most wars are.. which is why we should move to canada.. they tend to stay out of everything else happening in the world. plus if Cali is gone, at least we have that BC bud.