As massive numbers of Egyptian people continue to ignore a third night of government curfews and calls for President Mubarak to step down have evolved into calls for him to be put on trial, the increased military show of force in and around Cairo’s T- square is ominous.
On the TV-pundit circuit this morning, Hillary Clinton placed the current Administration’s modest calls for caution in the context of a "30 year process" of nudging the Egyptian President toward Democracy. If she means what she says, our government could quickly do two simple things –short of publicly dumping Mubarak—that would go a long way toward ensuring that the Egyptian people have a shot at a peaceful transition and real Democracy:
- Demand (yes, the U.S. government is definitely in a position to make demands of the client states it funds) that the Egyptian government to immediately lift restrictions on its peoples’ access to the internet and all forms of mass-communication (including the re-opening of Al-Jazeera’s Cairo beaureau).
- Make it unequivocally clear that the continuance of our massive levels of military aid to Egypt will be immediately and permanently halted if the Egyptian military moves to suppress this and any future peaceful popular uprising.