The Egyptian people or Hosni Mubarak who will outlast the other?

In the end, if they have the courage and persistance, the people always win.

I think the people are pretty damned determined there and will prevail.

Mubarak has about a 60 year head start on most of them, so I’ll say the people ;).

No seriously…. its starting to look as though the people will prevail.

The people. That is how our nation started and maybe it is time to examine what America needs.

I think the people will definitely win. Their protests are only gaining strength and numbers. When people first began marching in Cairo, there were ten thousand in the streets. Now, that number is around a hundred thousand. I think at this point, it would also look ridiculously bad for Mubarak to stay in office with the rest of the world scrutinizing him.

I think Mubarak needs to leave but at the same time I am really concerned with who replaces him. It is a very dangerous situation for the world over there right now.

I can’t predict, and I don’t even want to guess. Ultimately, I think the people have to prevail, but whether that will be this week, or when Mubarak steps down, or in a decade, I don’t know. I hope it’s sooner rather than later.

The Egyptian people will outlast Mubarak, but will not outlast the American/Israeli Imperialists, who will no doubt convince the Egyptian people to elect someone supportive of US/Israel.

There is no way back for Mubarak. He ruled through fear and American support and he has lost both. The Egyptian people will be there after Mubarak goes but he will leave a huge and dangerous void.

Ditto @CaptainHarley
No single “ruler” can stand up to a popular movement.
I won’t lecture you with history’s examples of this, many of them in the last 200+ years

@josie

I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot more of them over the next year or so.

Let’s see. Eqyptian people, 82,000,000. Hosni Mubaraks, 1. You do the math. Even in a massively rigged fight, that many fists win.

The people can put on a massive demonstration and frustrate government with just 1 million on the street. The other 81 million can be doing other things. The people will win.

@ETpro Mubarack maybe one man but he has the leader of the Free World behind him with billions to spend to assure the US has a dotiful lackey for decades to come. I believe @chris6137 has something there.

At this point, it wouldn’t amtter if that were true, but it is not true. The Obama Administration has backed WAY off support. They are saying publicly that they want to see an orderly transition, not chaos and a failed state. I am sure most Egyptians agree with that. But they are ramping up efforts through diplomatic channels to usher in some form of acceptable caretaker government that can replace the hated dictator and oversee the process of Constitutional reform and planning for fair and orderly elections.

I think we have very, very limited control of whom the Egyptians elect. We can certainly make an outcome we don’t like costly to them, given the aid we have previously provided. But look at how well withholding aid worked with Castro.

We may actually have to come to a point where we get other nations to cooperate with us because they like us and trust us to be a fair partner with them, interested in their interests, instead of a bully only looking to get our own way. But what would I know? I have only witnessed 60 years of spectacular foreign policy failures. No need to conclude the current course isn’t working yet. Let’s give democracy through dictatorship a few more centuries to deliver. :-)

Mubarak is history and he knows it. Right now he’s trying to figure out a way how to resign without losing face completely. Health reasons could be a “good” excuse.

Well, we were waiting for the other shoe to drop. It just did. I rarely get to say “I told you so so quickly. I’m going to risk that I’m on a prophecy roll here, and further predict that the major surprises in Eqypt and the Middle East aren’t over yet. Stay tuned.

@ETpro

Not over yet by a long shot. I predict the fall of rulers in Lebanon, Yemen, and perhaps even Saudi Arabia. There will continue to be attempts to overthrow the ayatollas in Iran, but there is the problem of the Revolutionary Guard, which is the best argument against this sort of ideological armed force I can imagine.

@ETpro We can certainly make an outcome we don’t like costly to them, given the aid we have previously provided. Which is tantamount to blackmail and that works pretty well. Like having the godfather tell you his lazy klutz of a son will be working at your business, you don’t have to hire him but if you want to have a business in the morning and not a pile of ash he better be on the payroll. The US gave Egypt all the toys they have and if Uncle Sam don’t get its way he stop giving them more and nothing to repair the ones they have. ”Its not coercion is just incentive to do as you are told”. The US know that Egypt is not going to go toe-to-toe with Uncle Sam, he gave them the Light sabers and didn’t give them the best ones. A padwan Jedi is not going to beat the master with a second hand Light saber.

We may actually have to come to a point where we get other nations to cooperate with us because they like us and trust us to be a fair partner with them, interested in their interests, instead of a bully only looking to get our own way. That would be assuming people have very short memories and forgot all what the Cowboy President has done. Before him there were places I would have visited on this planet that I will not visit now (and maybe for a log time) because I don’t want to be beheaded by being guilty of being an American.

The people may get rid of Mubarak but the US will surely see to it that there is a lackey there just as malleable as Mubarak.

@Hypocrisy_Central People don’t necessairly have short memories, but if you are honest about it, some are willing to give you a secind chance on the assurance you have truly changed. Of course, we’ve got the for right clamoring for an invasion of Iran, Yemen and now Egypt—with Syria on the list as well. So it might be a very hard sell to convince Arab leaders that even if this Administration is anxious to turn over a new leaf in Arab/Western relations, that leaf won’t get ripped from the book if a Sarah Palin or Rick Santorum or Tom Tancredo comes to power.

Yesterday’s speech was a joke. Even the CIA expected him to resign last night. Today Mubarak and his family left Cairo’s presidential palace by helicopter.

Looks like the Egyptian people have won!! Yay!!!

They got rid of Mubarak, but there is a long ways to go still. The military is in change and that has to stop. But the legislature is full of Mubarak lackeys, so they will have to be replaced in a free election. The protests may continue to keep the pressure on.

@janbb

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy !

http://www.fluther.com/112304/yay-we-are-witnessing-a-historic-moment-in-egypt-and/

“In the end, if they have the courage and persistance, the people always win.”

Mubarak’s exit is great news!
Hopefully the military will at least allow, if not facilitate, a peaceful transition to a secular democracy.
I’d like to see ElBaradei, or someone like him, at least become the interim leader.

@wundayatta @Brian1946 They got rid of Mubarak, but there is a long ways to go still. The military is in change and that has to stop. But the legislature is full of Mubarak lackeys, so they will have to be replaced in a free election.

Hopefully the military will at least allow, if not facilitate, a peaceful transition to a secular democracy.¬

There won’t have free elections if it appears that doing so hard line Islamic will take hold. As you say the military is mostly US cronies and if the new government won’t be US lackeys the real boss Israel will flex its muscle by way of his Luca Brasi Uncle Sam to cut off the money and the arms.

@Hypocrisy_Central Knock on wood, I think the fear that the Islamic Brotherhood is, A) a prevasive force in Egypt and B) Dedicated to the same goals as al Qaeda is something we’ve been sold by Mubarak as a justification for his suppression of all political dissent, and something embraced fondly and spread widely by our own fear mongers on the far right. A recent poll shows that the organization has no great base of support among the Egyptian people.

Egypt is a very different country from Afghanistan. Weher Afghanistan is 95% illiterate, the Egyptian people are well educated and, with all the centuries of tourism and trade, quite cosmopolitan.

I also find fault with the statement that the military is mostly US cronies since they seem to have been very supportive and protective of the protesters. I am cautiously optimistic that a coalition government of multiple parties will eventually be elected. It does seem likely that the new Egyptian government may not be as much of an ally to the US or as positive towards Israel but that remains to be seen.