LIKE IRAQ, THE RACE AGAINST TIME IS ON IN THE AFTERMATH OF EUPHORIA
But the fact remains that the authorities could have put down the uprising in Egypt. Is there any doubt about that? The Iranians have learned how to combat the social media, by means other than just shutting it off.
... haste in imposing a constitutionally (secular) order is required, as a prolonged period of waiting is not conducive, risky
One could surmise that the Egyptian regime leaders made a conscious choice to not attack their own people, to distinguish themselves from Iran, to avoid a "crackdown" as a matter of calculus.Until we know what happened behind the scenes, we'll continue to have this Facebook-incompleteness theorem.
As for the trajectory of the upcoming struggles, we have a tendency to analyze things giving favor in history to the acts of great men, rather than "systemic forces" empowering them. But at this time, positive assessments of both seem lacking from the Egyptian equation, which makes the odds look long. The parallels to Romania, say, and Condi's Eastern Europe analogies, seem stark.
I would argue that haste in imposing a constitutionally (secular) order is required, as a prolonged period of waiting is not conducive, risky, even if it might take political parties longer than that to form and organize properly.
The U.S. arguably wasted the critical time period after the immediate fall of the Iraqi regime. Now, Egypt have leaders who are, like John Boehner, used to being Orange Julius. Put more succinctly, they aren't used to rapid, accountable, comprehensive decision making and quick implementation.
