EGYPT’S TURN TO BURN
(from a firestorm of repressed discontent)

There always comes a time when any repressive regime faces an insoluble dilemma. Should it impose even harsher measures to control popular discontent; or, should it relax its grip on power somewhat with palliative and mostly cosmetic measures to calm that discontent.

If it tightens its grip with harsher measures against any kind of dissent or deviation from its rules of order, it risks just stoking the fires of that discontent even more, increasing the pressures against its authority and rule until, much like an explosive volcanic eruption, those pressures tear the framework of its society apart with chaotic and violent social upheaval…..the consequences of which can last for decades.

Now it’s Egypt’s turn to burn from a firestorm of repressed discontent. Whether that firestorm can be doused either with greater repression or by meaningless gestures of appeasement is doubtful. It may all be too little, too late, for the situation today. The people’s rage is too far gone to tolerate either approach. Thus the regime is in a lose-lose situation.

Realistically, the only smart option left for it is to get-the-hell-out-of-Dodge, so to speak, resigning all governing powers, turning these over to an interim caretaker authority. For Egypt, the Army, is the only national entity with both the means and the reputation to effectively handle such a responsibility, until a less repressive, less corrupt, civil government can be put in place, Whether Mubarak and company have the smarts to do so is a good question. More importantly, the real question is whether the Egyptian people can retain their unity of purpose so that such a process can take place without dissolving into factional violence.

Well, the moral of these kinds of events is this….if you let autocrats sit in the saddle too long, the only way to get rid of them is, eventually, you may have to shoot the horse….right out from under them.

CENTURION