In February of this year, I warned that the Egyptian military might simply
be playing a shrewd game of deception with the people of Egypt. It now seems
that my suspicions and concerns were well-founded. As you have probably
already heard, violence has once again erupted in Cairo's Tahrir Square in
Egypt; this time by the hand of the Egyptian military, who many Egyptians
erroneously assumed was siding with the youthful protesters of the January
25th Revolution.

This past Friday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Tahrir Square
to protest against some of the actions which have been taken by the military
since it took over the country following the departure of Hosni Mubarak two
months ago. They named this latest protest the "Friday of Warning".

According to online news sources, while the military claims to be slowly
working towards an open, free, democratic society in Egypt, at the same
time, thousands of Egyptians have been arrested and tried before military
courts over the past two months. Furthermore, some protesters have been
tortured, and there are claims that some of the female protesters have been
abused by means of so-called "virginity tests".

The latest protests were orchestrated in large part by the Muslim
Brotherhood, which at this current time happens to be Egypt's most organized
political organization, in the wake of the downfall of former Egyptian
dictator Hosni Mubarak. As you will recall, I mentioned in previous posts
that while the revolution was initially organized by Egypt's secular youth,
since then, it has in large part been taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Personally, I don't trust the Muslim Brotherhood, and I have begun to wonder
if they haven't made some kind of back-room power-sharing arrangement with
the Egyptian military.

When Friday's protests began, the Muslim Brotherhood claimed that the
military was "one hand" with the people; however, by early Saturday morning,
that perception had changed drastically. During the wee hours of the night,
as the protesters rested in Tahrir Square, for a period of about two hours,
several thousand Egyptian riot police, uniformed soldiers and military
police officers stormed the square. When it was all over, at least one
protester was dead, and dozens more were wounded.

In an article entitled "Hero of Egypt's Revolution, Military Now Faces
Critics", the New York Times noted in part:

----- Begin Quote -----

Since the military assumed direct control after Mr. Mubarak was forced from
power, it has seen its standing as defender of the revolution called into
question by actions that reflect the authoritarian tactics of the past
rather than a blueprint for a democratic future, many here said.

Even the new protest was met with violence. Around 3 a.m. on Saturday,
soldiers swept into Tahrir Square, beating hundreds of protesters with clubs
and firing heavy volleys of gunfire to break up the demonstration, The
Associated Press reported. The Health Ministry said that one person had been
killed, according to the news agency.

The troops dragged an unknown number of protesters away, throwing them into
police trucks, witnesses told The A.P.

----- End quote -----

So much for the Egyptian military being "one hand" with the people. These
authoritarian military dictatorships of the Middle East -- which is what the
Mubarak regime was -- simply don't seem to know how to deal with situations
other than through violence. We have seen this in Egypt, in Libya, in Syria,
in Bahrain, in Yemen, and elsewhere.

Not surprisingly, as a result of the early morning violence, the protesters
are now accusing the leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces --
Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi -- of being Egypt's new military
dictator. Considering that Field Marshal Tantawi has been a long-time friend
and ally of Hosni Mubarak, and that the Egyptian military supported
Mubarak's regime for the past thirty years, should we have expected any
better from Tantawi?

As one jailed blogger -- Michael Nabil -- noted, "The revolution has so far
managed to get rid of the dictator, but the dictatorship still exists."

It would seem then that the protesters of the January 25th Revolution in
Egypt have had a rude awakening, and now realize that their only true
friends and supporters are those who sit in, or march along, beside them. No
one else can be trusted.

And the Muslim Brotherhood?

Good question.



Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Download Center 4 Mac BBS Software & Christian Files.  We Use Hermes II


--- Hermes Web Tosser 1.1
 * Origin: Armageddon BBS -- Guam, Mariana Islands (1:345/3777.0)