Just out of interest, have you ever read anything by the Lexington Institute that ever pointed out any of the downsides of our vastly expansive mil-industrial complex?
The need for spare parts certainly worked wonders in Iran after 1979 ...
I think the Mubarak regime is showing quite an interesting counterinsurgent strategy in a very fast-moving situation. Deniable violence against the demonstrators, while offering concessions, negotiations, and placid words in the press. The obvious objective is to thin the crowds in the streets to relieve immediate pressure on the regime. Long term, perhaps they hope to stay in by demonstrating staying power, making cosmetic concessions, buying off or imprisoning opponents, and clamping down to ensure no more mass demos. Operations against the foreign press are to get inflammatory pictures off the TVs in Egypt and around the world, and hope that everyone forgets in a week or so.
In this case, the leaderless nature of the Egyptian demonstrators works for them. The movement cannot really be beheaded. At this point we will see just how much staying power an 83-year-old dictator really has, and how farsighted the Egyptian Army high command is.
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