The means justified the ends in Egypt

[bigbrother05]

It seems that one of the greatest lessons to be learned from the last 18 days is that it really does matter how you act on your convictions. It would have been easy for the protestors to fight back when the government thugs attacked early on and let the events take a violent turn. Instead they stood their ground while sticking with their non-violent tactics. Their tactics and steadfast pressure prevailed over an entrenched dictator and based on that, there is great hope going forward that Egypt will emerge as a real democracy empowered from the ground up.

[FrenchieCat]

1. Let us hope so.

Pres. Obama stated such in his June 4, 2009 Cairo speech.....“For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America’s founding. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. It’s a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end.”

[bigbrother05]

3. Thanks, fc!

It means a lot coming from you. Keep up the good work on your end.

[PoliticAverse]

6. Obama's speech conveniently left out the US civil war and its effect on slavery. n/t

[EFerrari]

7. If violence is a dead end, I assume Obama will rethink the billion dollars

we give the Egyptian military every year.

[Ricky Ricardo]

8. What a racket that is. We "give" them the money on condition

that they use it to buy weapons made in America.

And Egypt has been at peace for about 40 years.

Military/industrial complex indeed.

[midnight]

13. Or if violence is a dead end he will end this wars now, and bring them home...

Think of all that money to be used for a better quality of life for so many...

[PoliticAverse]

2. Non violent?

Things got a bit violent when the thugs attacked.
Lots of rock throwing by the protesters (including the use of at least one rock launching catapult).

[bigbrother05]

4. Perimeter defense, not roaming destruction

They didn't use that as an excuse to spread out and rampage.

[PoliticAverse]

5. They were certainly non violent...

when the pro-government forces left them alone.

But they did meet force with counter force, attack with counter-attack.

[slackmaster]

9. The end has not arrived yet in Egypt.

Ousting Mubarak is a very positive step, but nobody knows what Egypt will look like a year or three down the road.

[Ricky Ricardo]

10. Nobody knows what any country might look like a year or three

down the road.

Surely Egypt has shown us that truth, too.

The sole, unified aim for the protesters was the ouster of Mubarak.

[slackmaster]

11. I can say with high confidence that our country will hold Presidential and Congressional elections

...in 2012, and that the outcome will either be Party X or Party Y in control of both houses, or a split. That Barack Obama will either be re-elected as President, or we'll get a different President; but we will still have one President and a Congress consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. There will be two Senators from each state, and 435 members on the House. We'll still have the same federal Constitution we do now, with no additional amendments.

Our country will still have 50 states, each of which has its own government.

Nobody knows when the next election will be held in Egypt, or what form its government will take in 2012.

[Ricky Ricardo]

12. We can know when the last election in Egypt was, though.

And the futility of voting in it.

We can know that their Constitution has been suspended for 30 years.

And despite that, I can say with high confidence the same about Egypt as the US.

Party A will win X number of seats, etc. but their elections will be in 2011, not 2012.

[Fumesucker]

14. Actually it will be party "C" that wins in the USA..

The Corporate party is the one that will win the 2012 elections..

[slackmaster]

15. I call it the Incumbent Party, at least in California

We need some new blood.