Mubarak’s Security Forces Can’t Quell Protests
Protests, demonstrations, and riots continue throughout Egypt as Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak’s security forces are incapable of quelling them. The Egyptian Army has had more success in keeping the calm - they’re not nearly as confrontational and protesters seem more at ease with the military and keeping things peaceful than they are with the police and the security forces. The police had withdrawn from central Cairo, but it now appears that they’re gearing back up for yet another confrontation.
That’s a key factor going forward. The military is the key to the crisis. If the military gives up its support for Mubarak or throws its support behind the protesting opposition or other military leaders in the country, Mubarak’s time is over. It hasn’t mattered that Mubarak has fired his cabinet and installed a bunch of new ministers. They all suffer from the same problem - they’re all beholden to Mubarak and are part of the same decrepit regime.
It should go without saying that the Obama Administration is quietly preparing for an Egypt without Mubarak. What kind of government takes his place is open to debate - and the Egyptian people will have to thrash that out themselves. They’ll be the ones to decide whether they’re going to give the Muslim Brotherhood the power that the Brotherhood has been craving for generations, or whether the Egyptian people will seek a moderate political course of action that preserves individual rights and religious freedoms.
Still, the US has repeatedly called for the government and the people of Egypt to exercise restraint and shun violence all while respecting the people’s right to be heard.