Egypt's Mubarak resigns as leade

BREAKING NEWS:

'Absolute euphoria' in northern city of Alexandria at news of Mubarak's departure, BBC correspondent says


Egypt's Mubarak resigns as leader New
Protesters hold up shoes in front of TV headquarters - 11 February
Protesters in Tahrir Square. 11 Feb 2011
Previous Image | Pause | Next Image
4 / 5

Hosni Mubarak steps down as president of Egypt, after weeks of protests by anti-government demonstrators in Cairo and other cities.

* Egypt unrest



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

This isn't the end by any means. The VP is just a clone of Mubarak and the real question is what is the Military going to do?

The VP is not in charge, the military council is.

The Vice Presidency has been abolished and the Speaker of the Parliament has become President and MUST cooperate with the Army according to DebkaFile.

All rather confusing...just heard on TV that the VP is the head of the military council. Time will tell who is really in charge.

Is this a coup? Or really just continued military rule? Mubarak came from the army IIRC.

Right now the people are happy, but I wonder if they will be able to throw off the military yoke, and will the troops themselves follow orders or join the protestors?

Lots of jubilation now...but this sounds like a goat rope to me. The vacuum of power left behind can be filled by bad apples who don't have the people's best interest in mind. I'm reminded of how the Taliban filled the vacuum of power in Afghanistan and at first the Afghans thought it might be a great idea.

As a career Army officer I have to ask, when it is a good idea to have the military running your country? In democratic societies elected officials run the country and the military answers to them...therefore answering to the people they serve.

it's just not clear to me where this whole thing in Egypt is going...but if the crazies impede traffic through the Suez Canal...I know how it's going to end.

Time will tell.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/translat ... test-signs


********************Language warning*******************************

Egyptian protest signs translated from Arabic to English.

An interesting perspective from Reuters.....a European view of American diplomacy?

Israel shocked by Obama's "betrayal" of Mubarak

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/ ... 3720110131

If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday....

"We always have had and still have great respect for President Mubarak," he said on Monday. He then switched to the past tense. "I don't say everything that he did was right, but he did one thing which all of us are thankful to him for: he kept the peace in the Middle East."

Newspaper columnists were far more blunt.

One comment by Aviad Pohoryles in the daily Maariv was entitled "A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam." It accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks....

"The politically correct diplomacy of American presidents throughout the generations ... is painfully naive."

Perhaps Mr. Obama should shine up that Nobel Peace Prize as he may need to display it in the coming months. I have no idea where this thing ends up...but there have been Arab-Israeli wars before that did not end well for the Arabs...and the Israelis are far more technogically capable now.

This could get very interesting and I HOPE the US doesn't intervene.

But do we want to meddle and try to influence the Egyptian political future? I know people get upset about Iran trying to get influence in Iraq right now, but couldn't they say the same about the US?

I wonder if CIA agents are driving around Egypt with suitcases of cash trying to bribe potential leaders.