Only in Egypt?

[kierthos]

Okay, admittedly, I'm not as up on Egypt as I probably should be, but I find it... interesting that the Egyptian military just dissolved the parliament and suspended their constitution as part of the demands of the protestors.

I have to admit, when I first saw the article headline, I was expecting the nigh-standard "And then the military began the brutal sock-beating of the populace".

Comments

[matgb]

Heh, I read this post at the same time as the BBC journo was talking about it on the radio. Elections to Parlt were rigged and the constitution bans a lot of parties adnd groups from taking part in elections or even existing, so both make sense.

It's a weird situation, the military has a huge number of conscripts in it, and the officer class isn't that loyal to anything except their privileges and money, so it's not so much a coup but a pronunciamento--and I really wish media types would learn what that is and what the difference is.

Interesting times. Syria next?

[kierthos]

There's some rumblings in Algeria too. I think it stands a decent chance of being next.

Of course, over in Iran, they're cracking down on the opposition party again, so I don't think we're going to see much happen there for a bit.

[matgb]

Aye, Iran's "islamic democracy" claims are looking increasingly hollow at the moment--you can have a vote, as long as you vote for one of our approved candidates, and don't complain you want someone else, or when we rig it.

But, if most of N Africa and M East falls to actually legit pluralist democracies (and the demographics favour that over theocracy by my reading), then IRan will have fewer and fewer allies and more legit threats against it.

Nice to see the domino effect taking place completely independently of outside action.