The power-challenge dialectic once again courses through Araby:
In a battle reminiscent of the clashes that led to the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak nine months ago, a mass of protesters converged on Tahrir Square, fled before an onslaught of riot police officers firing tear gas and rubber bullets, and then surged back to retake and hold the square through the early hours of Sunday.
State media reported that more than 650 people had been injured, including 40 riot police officers, and at least one civilian was killed.
Coming a day after a huge Islamist demonstration and just more than a week before the first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections, the outpouring of anger was the strongest rebuke yet with the military’s attempts to grant itself permanent governmental powers. And it was a reuniting of Islamist and liberal protest movements that had drifted apart since the early days of the uprising…
After pledging to turn over power to civilians by September, the military has postponed the handover until after the ratification of a constitution and election of a president, sometime in 2013 or later. Then this month the military-led government put in writing a set of ground rules for a next constitution that would have given the military authority to intervene in civilian politics while protecting it from civilian oversight — setting off a firestorm.
It’s not over yet, not by a long shot.
As predicted, IIRC.
“Unexpected!” State Department, WH, CIA, National Security Adviser, and lamestream media everywhere.
i’m thinking “Arab Fail” might be a better name for this chain of events, but that would be redundant.
it’s almost like there was some power watching over Israel, protecting its people from their enemies.