NY Times photo: protesters climbed atop Egyptian Army vehicles near Tahrir Square in Cairo
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Stewart Rhodes
Oath Keepers
1/29/2011
“Are they on the side of the nation or are they on the side of the regime? That distinction had been blurred. We are now seeing a modern test of whether there is a separation between the two,” The New York Times quoted a former senior Western diplomat with long service in Cairo, as saying.
Who’s side is the military on? That is a vital question, and the answer will determine whether there will be a relatively peaceful “transition” from a dictatorship to a truly representative parliamentary system in Egypt. And that was the central question in Tunisia during the recent uprisings there. In Tunisia, the answer was that the military, in the end, was on the side of the people, and it was the refusal of the military to use force to preserve an illegitimate regime that prevented a bloodbath and allowed a relatively peaceful revolution by the people to finally rid themselves of a corrupt oppressor.
What will the military do? Will they side with the people, or with the regime? That is ALWAYS a fundamentally important question when a people have finally had enough of being lorded over by corrupt and oppressive regimes. In every revolution in history, that has been a central question. What just happened in Tunisia, and what is happening now in Egypt, are stellar examples of just how important and monumental that central question really is when it comes to a showdown between the people of a nation and a repressive government. And it should be a reminder, and a confirmation, of just how important the mission of Oath Keepers is.
The article continues at OathKeepers.org
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