| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa North |
| Egypt's revolution: Dark days |
| 2013-01-30 |
| The Muslim Brotherhood, amidst widespread public anger, wanted to mark the second anniversary of EgyptÂ’s revolution by planting 500,000 trees, helping a million hospital patients and renovating 2,000 schools. Instead, the country looks like it is falling apart. The past two days in Egypt looked at times like a slow-motion repeat of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak two years ago: the marches, the gas, the shouted demands to topple the regime, and a miscalculated response by the president (Mr Morsi took to Facebook and Twitter to express his condolences to the families of those killed). The unrest felt darker, more anarchic, than the uprising of 2011. The peaceful protests that began on Friday in Cairo to mark the two-year anniversary of the revolution by Sunday had been overtaken by the armed street battles in Port Said. Hard-nosed Suez, where the first demonstrator was killed in 2011, again provided the spark. Protesters ripped down police shacks and set government buildings alight. The police killed ten of those protesting.In the coastal city at the northern mouth of the Suez Canal, 33 civilians and two police officers were killed after relatives tried to storm a prison housing 22 local football fans sentenced to death on Saturday over a bloody stadium stampede last year. The riots have revealed worrying signs of a state that is both absent and untrusted by the people. Two years of transition and seven months of Brotherhood administration have failed to restore a sense of accountability. The Port Said families took matters, violently, into their own hands because they did not trust the court. The Ahly fans threatened to do the same. Protesters in Tahrir Square believe that Mr Morsi has lied to them too often to remain in office. The opposition says it will boycott elections unless the president reviews the transition process. Who will lead Egypt out of its current crisis is unclear. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #17 the salafists will say that the MBrotherhood isn't islamic enough and thus the cure is more islam whoopee |
| Posted by: lord garth 2013-01-30 18:58 |
| #16 "Buyer's Remorsi yet?" Dang, EC - and English isn't even your first language (I presume)! I'm jealous. ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara 2013-01-30 18:20 |
| #15 Make Israel the escrow-broker :). |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2013-01-30 17:39 |
| #14 I recommend the tanks and planes be held in escrow at the Port of Ashdod until things settle down a bit :-) |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-30 16:59 |
| #13 U.S. better shut off the 16 F16 aircraft and 200 Abrams tanks going to Egypt. They have no external threats on their borders. Such a transfer of weapons will only threaten Israel. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2013-01-30 16:49 |
| #12 Abu, if you can't imagine an Egyptian Napoleon, check out the original Mohammad Ali, and imagine him loose in today's Middle East. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2013-01-30 16:48 |
| #11 EC wins the vile pun of the day award! |
| Posted by: Steve White 2013-01-30 16:31 |
| #10 Buyer's Remorsi yet? |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2013-01-30 16:19 |
| #9 What's bitterly amusing is reading all the comments on this at the Economist and Foreign Policy sites Spengler responds to one of those who attacked his predictions here. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2013-01-30 14:58 |
| #8 But then it's hard for me to imagine a Napoleon coming out of Egypt. They might try but I just can't believe they have that sort of thing in them. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2013-01-30 14:30 |
| #7 Isn't this about the point in the process that Napolean arose? Naw. We gotta have Robespierre first. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2013-01-30 14:27 |
| #6 What's bitterly amusing is reading all the comments on this at the Economist and Foreign Policy sites; most of them are along the lines of "the Muslim Brotherhood won the election and the secularists should acccept it" and "this is not the way Democracy is supposed to be", and "if they're unhappy, they should deal with it in parliment and not on the streets". Kind of like the old-hippies-turned-wealthy-retirees in Haight-Ashbury complaining about the new breed of hippies 'infesting' the streets in front of their condos. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-01-30 11:43 |
| #5 The Arab Spring is in a free fall and no one knows where it will end up. At some point, with the disorder in these various countries, food will become a problem. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2013-01-30 09:57 |
| #4 He's been elevating officers who were members of the Bruderbünd and removing officers who weren't. Steve White Appears to be working for Obama. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-01-30 08:26 |
| #3 Morsi has been busy the last few months trying to ensure that the army is on his side. He's been elevating officers who were members of the Bruderbünd and removing officers who weren't. Not sure that's enough to save him, but the Egyptian military isn't necessarily what it was a couple years ago. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2013-01-30 08:25 |
| #2 Isn't this about the point in the process that Napolean arose? I'm sure there are several candidates for that position in the 'gyptian army. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2013-01-30 07:04 |
| #1 Who will lead Egypt out of its current crisis is unclear. The army. Coup could be days away. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2013-01-30 01:23 |