One of my cousins escaped Egypt. This is his account.

[Seshmeister]

You know what good old Tony Blair said about Murbarak? He was a beacon for good and when the Egyptian people disagreed Blair goes, well I know him from the inside and you just see him from the outside. Unbelievable. They should lock that fuck up in the Tower of London.

He's a crazy fucking nut job who is as dangerous as the amount of power he can find to wield. Maybe he was always like that but it seems like he has actually had some sort of minor mental breakdown detaching him from any sort of sensible judgement.

It reminds me of Thatcher and Reagan calling Nelson Mandela a dangerous terrorist...

[Seshmeister]

I think the transition should be slow and it should be moderated by the US...

Yeah well trust me, they don't.

[ELVIS]

I can tell that for sure...

[BigBadBrian]

But gosh this line reeks of your family's racism. "Egyptian people are for the most part a gentile, friendly people"

[BigBadBrian]

steal from the Palestinians

There's no such thing as "Palestinians."

[ace diamond]

One of my cousins was taking a tour of Egypt. He had booked a tour with one of Africa's best touring companies and was staying in a five star hotel by Giza. He said Egypt had changed a lot since he was there last. They had spent billions of dollars on a new airport, new museums, infrastructure to help the tourist industry. He said it was nice and they were having a wonderful time. He said Egypt is also a place that has tight security with lot's of plain clothes police and undercover police. In the past the Egyptian police did a good job of protecting the tourists and their presence was everywhere.

He said the next day they woke up, there were tanks in the streets and no police at all. No cell phone service or internet service. Their American tour guide said they were on their own and she locked herself in her hotel room and would not talk to anybody. The land lines worked and calls were made to the US Embassy which was no help at all. The US and British airlines were no help at all.

The Egyptian tour company showed up to the hotel with some big Egyptian guys and they loaded up the van and made a mad dash for the airport. Gangs of thugs had set up road blocks and they were armed with anything they could grab. The van just drove through these people at high speed. The military was on the streets but thugs were taking over things and no police in sight.

The airport was hell. A van full of thugs opened fire on people trying to get into the airport (this was never reported on the news). People were pushing and shoving, trampling over children in baby carriages fighting to get on a plane. My cousin said they had to fight and bribe their way onto a flight and got the hell out of there. It cost him thousands of dollars. All the people at the airport cared about was money.

He said it was like being in the movie Titanic when all hell broke loose. He said Egypt needs change but in the middle east, revolutions unfortunately bring in Islamic radicles. His friends in Israel are very concerned about who takes over Egypt because if it's the Muslim Brotherhood, all hell will break loose. He said the Egyptian people are for the most part a gentile, friendly people and it was those people that got them through the raging streets of Cairo and to safety. Not the US Government or American Airlines. Both were useless.

iwas over in europe in march 2004 when the madrid train bombing occured.
i was in munich, germany at the time.
security on the way back to the states was tighter than shit.

[ace diamond]

I think the transition should be slow and it should be moderated by the US...

imperialism and imperialist attitudes toward foreign affairs is foolish. careful consideration and soft, slow, very careful and gentle footsteps
would be a more advisable course.
this is not a deal wear an iron fist is going to acheive a damned thing.

[Nitro Express]

The real danger of the situation is a snowball effect through out the middle east. If Egypt collapses it will take other countries down with it. The big fear is a radicle Islamic takeover and a move against Israel. That will be a powder keg and with all the oil interests in the region, that could spark off a world war. Until the world can replace oil with something else, the middle east has what the rest of the world wants. Don't think the US invaded Iraq looking for Al Quaida. It had the excuse to get in there before China did.

[Nitro Express]

The Last time I was in China what struck me is how blatantly they copied the United States. China was set back 100 years by Mao's backward policies and it seriously wanted to catch up to the industrialized world. It had a real opportunity to build something new and different. I found myself in a traffic jam in Bejing and the air was hazy with smog. The automobile has taken over there to such an extent that you can't even ride a bike or walk safely. Then it struck me. The Chinese built 1970's Los Angeles. They copied the US so carefully, they even copied our mistakes.

[Seshmeister]

There's no such thing as "Palestinians."

A ridiculous argument.

Of course to subjugate and persecute a people you must first dehumanize them and deny their validity.

Depressingly familiar...