Egypt Phase 2
Dr. Cole has a nice explainer, Mubarak’s Basij, on what happened in Egypt today – the Ministry of Interior sent in its people thinly disguised as pro-Mubarak demonstrators to inspire fear.
Everyone knows this, even CNN, so that was a failure.
At this point Mubarak is probably not making the decisions. This was probably directed by the leaders of the Egyptian military. It would appear that they had no problem with sacrificing Mubarak, but they want an officer in charge. They have probably decided to make Suleiman the new President, and they don’t want civilians to interfere with their plans.
I think the military has seriously misinterpreted the situation. I can’t see the protesters settling for another military dictator [Mubarak was the head of the Egyptian Air Force before becoming Vice President under Sadat]. The military made a lot of friends among the people by not using force against the protesters, but they will lose if they decide to pull a “bait-and-switch” now, to hold on to power.
Today was an amazingly stupid move. They attacked American journalists, and the US media is actually reporting facts about the situation. Even the Village might figure out what is going on.
