Mubarak And His Thugs: Trying To Starve The Revolution

The army is in the streets doing nothing, allowing chaos.  They are not being employed for or against the people.  It’s a passive-aggressive stand-down.  The people are jubilant, but the siege against them has only begun.  Looting is beginning and hunger will be soon to follow.  Mubarak is going to starve the revolution unless an alternative government can be set up.

The country’s infrastructure is still in the hands of the Mubarak regime.  His greatest weapon at this point is patience.  He will neither instigate a slaughter or provide any leadership.  He will be able to claim his hands are clean.  He will allow desperation to do what the eyes of the world will not permit him.

The ominous and mysterious disappearance of the police will be solved when the identity of the marauding gangs of thieves and looters are discovered.  By then it may be too late.  Hunger and fear will govern the decisions of the people.  Mubarak will wait to be invited back.  He will reinstate services, take his time prosecuting the revolutionaries, make a show of meaningless reforms, and the people of Egypt will be worse off than they were before.

A new, American friendly, Vice President has been appointed by Mubarak.  Omar Soliman, former head of intelligence under Mubarak, a man that has worked closely with the U.S. in the failing peace process with Israel, is the first VP Mubarak has named in thirty years.  Ahmad Shafiq, a military commander, the former chief of air staff, was appointed prime minister.  Loyal to Mubarak, and ‘strong-men’ in their own right, the only option being offered the Egyptian people is chaos, starvation, or an even more dictatorial regime.

Mubarak gave a warning of this strategy in his speech.  He warned the people that freedom may become chaos, and he is doing everything he can to make it so.  Starvation of the people, and terrorism from the now invisible police force, are designed to break the spirit of the revolution.

Mubarak is already blaming the revolution on an “Islamic wave.”  This lie is designed to gain public from western people and will likely be parroted by the media.  Mubarak has used the Muslim Brotherhood for years as a scare-crow to gain support for his regime, and has been successful thanks to Christian or Jewish bigotry, Islamophobia, and the fact that his lies serve their agendas.

Unless the revolution can organize it’s own maintenance, and it’s own ‘government’ if you will, through twitter, Facebook, social media, telephone, fax, Ham radio, leaflets, whatever… as it managed the uprising, Mubarak will will starve the revolution.  Unless the people take back the infrastructure, the revolution will die.

When the people realize this and try to regain their infrastructure and achieve self government they will come in direct conflict with the army, and the army will have to choose.  The people of Egypt must decide whether they will make that move before desperation escalates and the secret police establish chaos.  Once that happens Mubarak will be hard to remove.  He will claim justification for ‘restoring order’ and will use any means possible to do so.

Photo of tank via giatri59’s Flickr photostream