Updated Title: World Revolution 2011

A friend of mine told me last night that his parents are over there stuck in this mess. They have been under lock down and seems to be safe but with this stuff you never know what can happen. He said they tried talking them out of taking the trip but they went anyways.

Firstdown, my prayers are with your friend and his family. I hope they can get out of this mess safely.

I have not had the chance to keep up with the story. So the military came in and started protecting the citizens protesting against the cops?

Thats what was being reported in the news on Friday. Also I have seen footage where the citizens are waving to the Soldiers and the Soldiers are just sitting there waving back. Its as if they have no desire to continue to support Mubarak.

So why is Obama supporting this up rising? There is a chance that this could become another Iran.

Not much discussion on this, but Jordan's King just fired his Cabinet:
Jordan's king fires Cabinet amid protests - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110201/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_jordan_cabinet)

Seems like the whole Islamic culture is in the midst of a populist backlash. And it seems like the two opposing sides are democratic forces and extremists. What options does the US have in supporting the rise of democracies? Can we do anything without a backlash from our major supporter, the Saudi's - who have 0 interest in democratic reform? If the extremists get control of Egypt and/or Jordan, how does that affect our goals and withdrawal timelines in Iraq?

This could be a turning point in Mideast culture that either moves us forward for decades to come, or if bungled, we could set back any progress we have made (fleeting as it is) for the same decades.

So why is Obama supporting this up rising? There is a chance that this could become another Iran.

Clearly the US is caught between a rock and a hard place with this issue. There are legitimate democratic forces that are involved in the peaceful, so far, demonstrations, and they are voicing legitimate concerns so we as a country and by our supposed ideology need to be supportive of those groups and ideas. On the other hand, the Egypt-Israeli cooperative peace, such as it is, is vital to our national interest as long as we support Israel's right to exist, and Mubarak has a long standing relationship with the US, hard to break those ties without scaring our other allies. (there was a reason why the founding fathers warned of foreign entanglements!)

Well then maybe Bush was right when he said after the middle east sees what freedom looks like it will spread. That was pretty much his theme in his second term. HMMMMMM

CNN.com - Bush expounds on theme of freedom - Jan 26, 2005 (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/26/bush/)

Should have known this would come down to a rock tossing event. Not sure when power has ever changed hands in the middle east without a good rock tossing event. I'd like to know where they get all of the rocks. Do they have chain Rocks-R-Us stores in the middle east? Sad to see.

Is anyone watching this thing going down today and now tonight. I worked late tonight but I've had the news on sense 9:00 watching several ch.

I'm surprised this thread is so dead with everything thats going on in the ME.

I think anyone who cares enough to know what is going on is probably confused what to think. On one hand it is clear that Mubarak is a goner. And should be. On the other hand the uprising has no form to it. No real leader or organizing force it seems. So the prospect of Mubarak leaving office and Egypt slipping into complete and utter chaos due to the lack of a functioning government is sort of terrifying. Uprising is certainly fine (especially in the name of freedom) but it has to come with some type of unified direction and be led by someone/thing that can take ownership of the changes. This situation has nothing like that. Just a bunch of frustrated people throwing rocks and getting mad. I tend to believe Muburak is right when says he can't step down because the place would turn even worse without him at this point.