The inimitable Texas progressive, David Van Os, has penned another missive -- this time on the current mess in Egypt. As usual, he is right on target, so I repost it here for my readers. And David now has a blog of his own. It's called Notes From a Texas Patriot, and you can now find it in my blogroll.
It is a joy to watch the Egyptian Revolution say “Hell No!” to the efforts of the international power brokers to leave the dictator Mubarak and his chief torturer Suleiman in charge of their country.
The Egyptian uprising is not the product of a calculated plan by professional revolutionaries. It is a spontaneous mass revolt by ordinary citizens who shared a long simmering spark of resentment against dictatorship and repression.
Over the past several days the power brokers in the White House and the hidden conference rooms in Cairo have tried to co-opt the revolution by imposing a “compromise” that would keep Mubarak, Suleiman, and their totalitarian police-state regime in power for a so-called smooth transition. That “compromise” is equivalent to the Continental Congress agreeing after the Battle of Yorktown to remain part of the British Empire for a “smooth transition” during which King George III would participate in planning a new colonial government for a semi-autonomous dominion of the Empire. I’m reminded of a Mohandas Ghandi quote that a friend places under his email postings: “All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals.”
Dictator Mubarak and Compromiser in Chief Obama need to face up to the fact that the Egyptian people cannot trust and will not put up with Hosni Mubarak or any of his thugs remaining in power. This is a glorious People’s Revolution that demands democracy and fundamental human rights NOW. It is part of an international revolution erupting across the Middle East and North Africa, manifesting a shared consciousness that the time has come to overthrow tyranny and despotism. Every American in whose heart beats the spirit of freedom should be exulting at the sight of it.
The omniscient (self-styled) political and media pundits counsel us on “stability” and “peaceful change”. They want us to forget and ignore the fact that the people did not ask for the totalitarian dictatorships that are rampant in North Africa and the Middle East. The repressive regimes imposed themselves on the people through force and brutality. Despotism creates instability, because the desires of oppressed people for freedom and liberty never go away, but only simmer and percolate in resentment and anger, inevitably to boil over eventually.
The only path to stability and peaceful change in Egypt is for Mubarak and every one of his thugs, including Suleiman, including anybody else that Mubarak might choose to head a government, to leave. Leave now. The revolution has shown a remarkable ability to discipline itself for peaceful conduct. It has shown an amazing unity of purpose and spirit. It will also show the ability, if given the opportunity, to negotiate an orderly plan for accelerated elections to choose a new government of and by the people, a peaceful pro-democracy transitional government, and the orderly administration of civic infrastructure and public services.
Mubarak and all his thugs must recognize that their regime’s time is over and that the only thing left for them is to negotiate an orderly and immediate surrender. The Obama administration must recognize this also and cease trying to impose its exasperating culture of compromise on the Egyptian people’s just demand for immediate democratic transformation. Thirty years is long enough to wait.
I'll have to check him out..although the minute someone calls himself a patriot..I back my ass up to the wall.
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