Democracy in Egypt

Good report

Good report

Good report

The people has spoken in Egypt - the will of God is done. Freedom has taken residence in Egypt. May the peace of God continue to be with you as you chart your new partway's into a bright and prosperous future for your children's children.

Those of us who claim to love freedom yet fail to nurture the green shoots of democracy wherever they sprout, no matter how inconvenient the timing, are doomed to lose our own.

Indy news production is the new "truth in media", thank you for helping to bring on the new reality.

So happy to discover current.tv and see Keith Olbermann will now be free to tell us what he really thinks!

Jeff - Portland, OR

I enjoyed your video.It adds perspective on what is happening on the ground today.

the small window for democracy seems like it may be closing, and the US has toned down its calls for democracy. Perhaps the small taste of democracy it had ---anti-American chants, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood -- was more than the US had bargained for. So for now, the egyptian government led by Mubarak and company have reigned in the daily citywide protests.

Watching this pod brought back memories of a trip I took to Egypt in 2002. I must have stumbled upon a dozen protests and rallies during my week in Cairo. I was in college at the time and it was pretty incredible to see such an engaged and strong youth movement. I guess not that much has changed!

One of the stated goals of the Bush Administration in its first term was to bring democracy to the Middle East. One of the questions historians might some day ask was if, instead of beginning democratizaton with war--the invasion of Iraq--it might have been easier to begin by pressuring a nation that was supposedly a U.S. ally and recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. aid. That nation is Egypt, the largest Arab nation, and, except for being less than 10% Coptic Christian, doesn't have the same sectarian splits as exist in Iraq. In the fall of 2005, perhaps responding to U.S. pressure, the Egyptian government held partially contested elections for President and Parliament--although the man who was permitted to run against President Hosni Mubarak was soon imprisoned.... But riding that momentum, a tiny number of democracy advocates began to speak out. When Adam, Tracey Chang, and I arrived in March of 2006, when found ourselves in the extremely unusual situation of attending an anti-government protest demonstration practically every day--especially having worked in Egypt with Laura Ling in 2002 and Anderson Cooper in 1993, I knew how little the government usually tolerated dissent. Interestingly, along with hating President Mubarak, Adam, Tracey and I noticed that the protesters were not very found of President George W. Bush, leading us to wonder how peaceful a democratic Middle East might be. This year, for whatever reason, the U.S. has put less public pressure on Egypt, in terms of demanding democratization.