January 25th Revolution – More than Just Political Change in Egypt

January 25th Revolution – More than Just Political Change in Egypt

The successful revolution in Egypt has showed the world how change can happen when the people of a nation are united in a cause.

Many individuals and groups around the world have made similar struggles but without the same degree of success.

The uprisings across the Middle East have narrowed the definition of ‘us’ and ‘them’, and have united the world in sympathy for a people and its struggle for democracy.

Egypt has come a long way since its subservience to colonial rule under the British that was followed by a victorious war with Israel .

Egypt only experienced defeat when America started to support  Israel .

The last thirty years under the Mubarak regime have been a time of oppression for Egyptians and as an ironic twist, Mubarak allowed the building of an underground wall behind which the Palestinians of Gaza are to be imprisoned; all with American and Israeli support.

The problems facing Egyptians in the aftermath of the revolution do not lie so much in the upheaval it caused, but in who America chooses to support.

From the early days of the revolution, the US lent its support to Omar Suleiman who used to supervise "rendition flights" to Egypt where people are tortured on demand of the CIA.

According to WikiLeaks Suleiman is also a  favorite in Israel .

Even before the January 25th Revolution, President Obama insisted that Mubarak was a peacemaker, "a force for good."

The gruesome Suleiman has now taken over Mubarak’s role as ‘the peacemaker and the force for good’, and has been entrusted with the task of overseeing the transition of power and diffusing the protests.

Many Egyptians see his work as suffocating the Egyptian revolt.
 
The US relies on Egypt to maintain a balance with Israel in the region and the revolution put the US in an awkward position, because if the political vacuum was not overseen ‘properly’ an unknown entity could come to power in Egypt that is likely to work against US/Israeli interests.

The US has a grisly track record in the Middle East from Iraq to Gaza and is now using the excuse of ‘preventing chaos’ in a chaotic region to put its puppets in power once again, and in this context Omar Suleiman has slid into a prominent and significant political position.

At the same time, Western perceptions of Egypt have changed dramatically, largely due to the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood and its moderate stances amid the bravery and resolve of the people in Tahrir Square . This contrasts with the stereotypical images of al-Qaeda and a variety of Islamist bogeys of which the US has propagated and benefitted from.

As global influences continue to render countries like Egypt little more than a pool of cheap labor, the people’s victory in the 2011 revolution in Egypt not only ousted an old corrupt tyrant from power, but was also a blow to global corporatism and the US desire to implement economic control worldwide.

The Egyptian revolution showed corporate America that –in modern terms – young people can do much more than just be consumers.