We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, March 19, 2011

In Egypt, a New Guard

by Stephen Gowans from VoltaireNet




Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, known to Egyptians as “Mubarak’s poodle,” may be calling the shots in Cairo as head of the country’s military-led government, but the man who sits at his right hand side is the Pentagon’s poodle, and he’s likely to continue to play a key role in Egypt even after a civilian government succeeds the current military one.








The author spotlights the Pentagon's hold over Egyptian politics using the same imperialist model it developed in Latin America--wed a country's military elite to the US military-industrial establishment. Clearly the removal of Mubarak was only the first step in Egypt's revolution, but to assume it stops there ignores the fact that Egyptians have experienced real power and are not likely to merely submit to new dictators.