Watching the jubilant crowds on the TV and so glad that the dire predictions of a bloodbath have so far not come to pass.
CAIRO (AP) – Cries of “Egypt is free” rang out and fireworks lit up the sky as hundreds of thousands danced, wept and prayed in joyful pandemonium Friday after 18 days of peaceful pro-democracy protests forced President Hosni Mubarak to surrender power to the military, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.
Ecstatic protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir, or Liberation, Square hoisted soldiers onto their shoulders and families posed for pictures in front of tanks in streets flooded with people streaming out to celebrate. Strangers hugged each other, some fell to kiss the ground, and others stood stunned in disbelief.
Chants of “Hold your heads high, you’re Egyptian” roared with each burst of fireworks overhead.
“I’m 21 years old and this is the first time in my life I feel free,” an ebullient Abdul-Rahman Ayyash, born eight years after Mubarak came to power, said as he hugged fellow protesters in Tahrir Square.
Freedom, for the moment, is won. The hard work of keeping it begins today.
Recurring Nightmare 
Its hard not to be pleased for the Egyptian people who as of now should be proud of what was accomplished.
That said, as I’ve gotten older, I am less optimistic about what a revolution can accomplish. Not only histoiric revolutions that descended into bad times, e.g. French and Russian that led to Jacobean and Stalinist terror, but in my own lifetime I can see the disappointment, or worse, of revolutions in Cuba, Iran, Cambodia, Ukraine, Algeria, Nicaragua…
I hope this skepticism is wrong!
LikeLike
You’re probably right.But it may not be as bad as the Iranian revolution because there is no iconic religious mystical leader like Khomeini and Egypt is not the center of Shi’a like Iran nor Sunni like Saudi Arabia.
In the Middle East there are only three countries that have been independent and cohesive entities over the last few hundred years-Eypt,Turkey,and Iran.
LikeLike
What has actually changed? Of course Mr. Mubarak, who emerged from the Army, is gone, perhaps. And the Army leadership is in control, pretty much as it always has been, but without Mr. Mubarak in a visible role. There is difficulty on the Sinai, as apparently the Egyptian police have abandoned their posts and the 800 soldiers of the Egyprian Army attempt to maintain order. Israel has ordered the evacuation of all Israeli tourists and business people who were at the Sinai towns and resorts. And it is unclear, what will become of the Egyptian Coptic Christian community, comprising about 20% of the population. The Coptic community is perhaps the oldest Christian community in the world. It will imperative for the Army to get business going again in Egypt; if it cannot, chaos will result.
LikeLike