Hey again! So, in my next post I was going to mention how little I had to say about Egypt, but after going to my International Relations class today I have an announcement:

The CIA believes Hosni Mubarak will step down tonight.

Hooray! I'm so proud of all the people working their tails off in Egypt to ensure that true democracy has its day. For those people who are still nervous about the role of the military and the possibility of violent suppression of the revolution, fear not. My professor (in his own words a student of history) Allen Lynch reassured our class that the Egyptian soldiers were already far too integrated with the civilians to be able to fire upon them. There would be no control over the ordinary soldiers.

The kind of situation in which the crush of a revolt can occur requires sufficient separation between the army and the people. Just look at this picture from 1905 in which the Czarist Russian military puts down a factory strike:


See the separation? Egypt has none of that. Nor do they have extremely fashionable fur coats. So fear not, world. Mubarak goes tonight, and he goes peacefully.