During a televised address to the nation last night, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak vowed with a bang that he would not resign come hell or high water. Yet, less than 12 hours later, he did just that with a whimper – by having Vice-President Suleiman read his one-sentence resignation letter, which also conferred his presidential reins of power to the military.
Well, after 18 days of protests, Allah has answered their prayers. But only Allah knows what will happen now….
I have no doubt that if I were in Egypt, I would be marching today too. So I wish them well.
(Army pledges no force against protesters, The iPINIONS Journal, February 1, 2011)
But these revolutionaries are already calling for Mubarak to stand trial for human rights abuses and the alleged expropriation of over $70 billion dollars (surely an exaggeration) from the Egyptian treasury.
Beyond that, there’s this:
Whose next: Abdullah of Saudi Arabia? Abdullah of Jordan? Saleh of Yemen? … Khadafi of Libya? The prospects make me positively giddy. When Obama spoke of HOPE and CHANGE during his presidential campaign these are not the transformations I anticipated; but I’ll take them.
Allah-u-akbar!
(Egypt on Fire…, The iPINIONS Journal, January 31, 2011)
NOTE: I doubt we’ll ever know exactly how forces conspired overnight to force Mubarak to resign. But I suspect the often-touted ties between the U.S. government and the Egyptian military was instrumental. Perhaps Mubarak can commiserate with Baby Doc Duvalier and Jean Bertrand Aristide in this respect.
It’s worth debating at some point, however, whether or not this was really a coup if the military removed a dictator at the behest of the people – notwithstanding what outside influence the world’s only super power may have exerted.
Related commentaries:
Mubarak says hell no, he won’t go
Army pledges no force against protesters
Egypt on fire