It's day nine in what can justifiably now be called the Egyptian revolution. As we've learned over the past few days, the consistently best, stick-with-the-story English-language coverage is coming from Al Jazeera, which you can access via the Internet here.
Thanks to the collaborative effort of scores of Kossacks, there is a Mothership on the Recommended List with a running aggregation of diaries and important links to the continuing story in Egypt. There you can link to each of the previous diaries written on the subject.
In addition to the usual sources, here are a few worth looking at:
Openda has an excellent twitter feed of Egypt-related material.
simon daud has created a series of Arab sources on the subject.
alMasr Al-Youm is independent Egyptian media.
Sharif Abdel Kouddous reports from Egypt for Democracy Now.
The Arabist is Iskandr El Amrani's blog.
Stellaa at Sarthanapolos has posted A Guide: How Not To Say Stupid Stuff About Egypt.
From The Guardian, Egypt protesters react angrily to Mubarak's televised address:
The crowd had rigged up a huge screen to show al-Jazeera. Mubarak's speech was broadcast live. As he announced that he would not be standing for another term, the rally exploded in anger.
The screen was pelted with bottles and the cry "Irhal, irhal" went up repeatedly: "Leave, leave". It was taken up by the hundred thousand people who thronged Tahrir Square. At one point demonstrators held up their shoes to the screen – an insulting gesture in Arab culture.
None of them were appeased by Mubarak's announcement. If anything, they were emboldened to step up their protests and to push their demands further. Many were saying that not only must Mubarak leave immediately but that the whole of his National Democratic party regime had to go and should be put on trial.
"If he's here until September then so are we," said Amr Gharbeia, an activist who is camping out in the square.
"Perhaps this would have been enough to appease people a few days ago but it's much too late now. He has to leave and he has to leave today," added Ibraheem Kabeel, a 26-year-old physician. ...
"Mubarak will go down in Egyptian history as the president who ordered security forces to fire live bullets into the bodies of his sons and daughters. There's no way back from that." |
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2007:
Suppose you wanted to start a war. Forget for a second about why you might want to do this. Maybe you're trying to distract the public from the disastrous way in which you handled your last conflict. Maybe you are still intent on fulfilling your messianic vision of yourself as reshaper of the Middle East and bringer of the Apocalypse. Maybe you're just an ass. Who can say? But if you wanted to start this war, can you name some steps you might take?
How about blaming your opponent for all your troubles, even when you know they're not responsible for all, or even most, of what you're seeing?
How about issuing a license to kill for nationals of your opponent?
How about violating a diplomatic office of your opponent, smashing into the buildings, and taking away officials who were there at the invitation of the local government?
How about bringing in more troops on your opponent's doorstep, more ships into neighboring waters, and ratcheting up the rhetoric? |