More protests. Omar at Iraq the Model brings to our attention Egyptians who grow impatient with strongman Hosni Mubarak's half-hearted promises for reform:
Several hundred Egyptians protested in central Cairo on Monday in the largest street demonstration since the launch last year of a campaign against continued rule by the Mubarak family. Liberals, leftists and Islamists chanted: "Enough, shame, have mercy" and "Down, down with Hosni Mubarak" in a public square outside the gates of Cairo University, as tens of thousands of mostly bemused commuters drove past.Many of them carried yellow flags or stickers saying "Enough" — the slogan of an informal movement dedicated to stopping Mubarak from obtaining a fifth six-year term in office or arranging for his son Gamal to take over the presidency. Thousands of riot police armed with batons and shields surrounded the protesters and prevented some people from joining the crowd, but they did not attempt to disperse them.
There is fear behind the iron fist; fear of the people it restrains and the allegiance sworn to their ascendance, finally, by confederate free nations. No useful idiots with puppets have prevented it. We may be able to leave the left to its callow fantasies and turn full attention to the work at hand.
GRASSROOTS: One protest chant demanded Mubarak's regime release democratic advocate Ayman Nour. Both critics and supporters of President Bush's strategy of freedom maintain that challenging the repression of foreign reformers is a "test" of the president's resolve. The Washington Post, in naming Nour as their test of choice, noted that as of the second of this month, the White House had responded to Nour's arrest with admirable condemnation.
Yet perhaps we expect too little from the oppressed, too little from the easy translation of our values. If the president has made his intolerance for quashing dissent known, whose task — and victory — is it to free Ayman Nour but the Egyptian people's themselves?
BUT OF COURSE: Our man Ghaly reports.