President Hosni Mubarak evidently has the same hearing problem as Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. Protesters have now been calling for him to step down for the 3rd consecutive week, so what does he do? He fires his Cabinet. Yeah... that's the ticket, after all, his people need him, don't ask them, just ask him. He even appointed a Vice President, his close buddy intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman; actually the first Egyptian veep in roughly 30 years. So why aren't the citizens of Egypt excited? What they are demanding is that he just leave, step down, resign.
It would be best for him to have his ears checked before the US warships arrive. Quite as it's kept, there are reports of US military vessels being sent to Egypt. The official reason is just in case US citizens there have to be evacuated. My suspicion is since one of the ships is said to have 8,000 troops onboard, Mubarak's exit may come sooner than he thinks.
False conscience seems to spread throughout African dictators as quickly as AIDS or Ebola. I get the feeling that throughout all the dead bodies, frivolous imprisonments and torture, these guys have actually convinced themselves that they're lovable.
The same pretty much goes for Duvalier. After 25 years he mysteriously returns to his homeland of Haiti. His spokesman Henry Robert Sterlin said he wanted to return "to see the effects of the devastating 1/12/10 earthquake." I'm sure if he would have sent a letter, someone would have mailed pictures (nevermind that he took over a year after the quake to return). For Baby Doc-a former dictator known for political violence, including torture, starvation and execution (much like his father François "Papa Doc" Duvalier) by clubbing in the back of the neck-to suddenly appear with claims of being deeply hurt in his soul after that earthquake, is like pneumonia returning after it learned you just had a heart attack. Like I said, these guys think they're lovable. Duvalier was at once known to be trimming hedges on the front lawns of a city in France to squeeze out a living because his assets were frozen. The French government claims they didn't know he departed. Can garden boys slip away unnoticed? How do you explain his being arrested after his arrival and then being mysteriously released? I believe France is still kind of sensitive about trying to outright take over Haiti after getting beat down and kicked out back in the 1700s. What better reason than to use the all-too-willing Duvalier to go back in and kick his people back into chaos and confusion before someone gets an idea to use all that unused earthquake relief money for the benefit of the Haitians.
Reasons for Duvalier's return was hotly debated for about a week and a half. One website says the Swiss ordered him back under threat of having his assets frozen again unless he takes control accompanied by a squad of Halliburton mercenaries and local Haitian thugs. My take is, it's less concern about the results of the quake and more concern about Haiti's upcoming presidential election that drew Duvalier.
Mubarak's long-enduring leverage has been his traditionally being the enemy of US enemies; I'm speaking of the old Soviet Union and radical Islam consecutively. Egypt has been a US ally since making peace with Israel in 1978, his problem is the people of Cairo and other cities in Egypt are now creating their own leverage in their own way, revolution, the civil disobedience way. Despite the deaths and even the rise of the Mubarak supporters among the citizenry (Not really loyalists, but paid riff-raff) it seems to be gaining momentum. Remember these protesters just witnessed the overthrow of Tunisia's iron ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali 3 weeks ago. They know about the rumored arrest, detainment, and physical abuse of a Facebook activist Ahmed Maher. The 30-year-old Egyptian is also the leader of the April 6 Youth. They also know America's record of either installing, supporting, or at least turning a blind-eye to brutal regimes.
Photo by Beefoto, Flickr, cc by 2.0
