Now, the Egyptian People Wonder how the Egyptian Military Will Govern

Not surprisingly, after the overthrow of the Mubarak government, the Egyptian people are starting to wonder the full intent how the military will govern. In the old adage, "you break it, you buy it." The Egyptian people have no idea what they stirred up. They removed Mubarak from power and allowed Mubarak's general and best friend to take over. The likelihood for a nice transition will be innocuous at first, but let's wait and see six months from now. Throughout history, military leaders having absolute power will eventually lead to absolute corruption.

(The Independent) Two days after millions of Egyptians won their revolution against the regime of Hosni Mubarak, the country's army – led by Mubarak's lifelong friend, General Mohamed el-Tantawi – further consolidated its power over Egypt yesterday, dissolving parliament and suspending the constitution. As they did so, the prime minister appointed by Mubarak, ex-General Ahmed Shafiq, told Egyptians that his first priorities were "peace and security" to prevent "chaos and disorder" – the very slogan uttered so often by the despised ex-president. Plus ça change?

In their desperation to honour the 'military council's' promise of Cairo-back-to-normal, hundreds of Egyptian troops – many unarmed – appeared in Tahrir Square to urge the remaining protesters to leave the encampment they had occupied for 20 days. At first the crowd greeted them as friends, offering them food and water. Military policemen in red berets, again without weapons, emerged to control traffic. But then a young officer began lashing demonstrators with a cane – old habits die hard in young men wearing uniforms – and for a moment there was a miniature replay of the fury visited upon the state security police here on 28 January.

It reflected a growing concern among those who overthrew Mubarak that the fruits of their victory may be gobbled up by an army largely composed of generals who achieved their power and privilege under Mubarak himself. No-one objects to the dissolution of parliament since Mubarak's assembly elections last year – and all other years -- were so transparently fraudulent. But the 'military council' gave no indication of the date for the free and fair elections which Egyptians believed they had been promised.

But a clear divergence is emerging between the demands of the young men and women who brought down the Mubarak regime and the concessions – if that is what they are – that the army appears willing to grant them. A small rally at the side of Tahrir Square yesterday held up a series of demands which included the suspension of Mubarak's old emergency law and freedom for political prisoners. The army has promised to drop the emergency legislation "at the right opportunity", but as long as it remains in force, it gives the military as much power to ban all protests and demonstrations as Mubarak possessed; which is one reason why those little battles broke out between the army and the people in the square yesterday.

The suspension of the constitution – a document which the millions of demonstrators anyway regarded as a laissez-passer for presidential dictatorship – left most Egyptians unmoved. And the army, having received the fulsome thanks of Israel for promising to honour the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, announced that it would hold power for only six months; no word, though, on whether they could renew their military rule after that date.

As Expected, Egyptian Military Suspended Egypt Constitution

As expected, the Egyptian military suspended Egypt's constitution and begun quelling the dissidents on the streets. Preventing another uprising, the military is showing what every coup d'etat leader in history has demonstrated. As the old adage goes, "those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." It is unlikely that the Egyptian military general, who is a lifelong friend of Mubarak, will relinquish military hold on the country any time soon.

(Reuters) - Egypt's military delivered an ultimatum on Monday to dozens of committed protesters in Tahrir Square, nerve centre of a movement that toppled Hosni Mubarak, to leave and let life return to normal or face arrest.

Soldiers had scuffled with demonstrators the day before as they reopened the central Cairo square to traffic. Some protesters insisted on staying, determined to see through their demands for civilian rule and a free, democratic system.

Protest leaders say Egyptians will demonstrate again if their demands for radical change are not met. They plan a huge "Victory March" on Friday to celebrate the revolution, and perhaps to remind the military of the power of the street.

Egypt's generals, who played an important role in the anti-Mubarak revolt by making no effort to crush it, are asserting their control following Mubarak's overthrow.

Having suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament on Sunday, moves welcomed by those who saw both institutions as geared to serve Mubarak's personal ends, the military council was planning to issue orders intended to stifle disruption and get the country back to work, a military source said.

Free and fair elections will be held under a revised constitution, the military said, but it gave no timetable beyond saying it would be in charge "for a temporary period of six months or until the end of elections to the upper and lower houses of parliament, and presidential elections".

Political analysts were beginning to ask how long the whole process of amending the constitution, having a referendum on it and then holding elections would all take.

Egypt's army said it wowuld lift the hated state of emergency, implemented after the assassination of Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat by Islamist soldiers and kept in place by Mubarak to stifle dissent, but has not specified a timetable which has troubled protesters.

The army said at the weekend it would uphold Egypt's international obligations. These include its peace treaty with Israel, whose defence minister has been in touch with his Egyptian counterpart, who heads the military council.

The army source said military authorities were expected to issue an order soon that would ban meetings by labour unions or professional syndicates, effectively forbidding strikes, and would tell all Egyptians to get back to work.

There would also be a warning from the military against those who created "chaos and disorder", the source said, adding the army would, however, acknowledge the right to protest.

President Mubarak Tells Barack Obama to Lay Off

There are dramatic change in events occurring in Egypt. The protest is waning, but still maintaining a distruptive atmosphere. The audacity of Obama pushing another world leader to step aside and resign is pure hypocrisy. President Mubarak said he will step down in 6 months prior to the elections. Since Mubarak have been in power for 30years, I think 6 months is a reasonable time to allow a transition of power with a Democratic election. Telling Mubarak to step down as president will create a void, which will lead to a chaos worst than the protest. In a state of an emergency, it is important to maintain order. To do that, Mubarak must call martial law and assign the army to quell the situation, incarcerate every radical element within Egypt, and allow the Democratic process of free elections to take place. It is a very unorthodox way to handle the situation, but during desperate times calls for desperate measures.

The United States does not need to meddle in the Democratic process of free elections in another country. On Friday, Mubarak finally told Obama to "knock it off." The Egyptian president is refusing to answer phone calls from foreign parties because it is aimed to incite the internal situation in Egypt. Since Mubarak isn't taking any phone calls from Obama, the Obama Administration is treatening to stop aid to the Egyptian government. Obama wants to see Mubarak resignation happen sooner than later. This provocation by Obama will incite the protest to another level. Because of this, what choices Mubarak takes was caused by Obama's meddling.

(Indian Express) As violence on the streets of Cairo indicated a well-orchestrated attempt by the Hosni Mubarak government to silence the protests against his regime, the US openly broke with its most stalwart ally. Ending days of delicate public and private diplomacy, the Obama administration strongly condemned violence by allies of Mubarak against protesters and called on him to speed up his exit from power.

Egypt’s government hit back swiftly. The Foreign Ministry released a defiant statement saying the calls from “foreign parties” had been “rejected” and “aimed to incite the internal situation in Egypt”. Separately, in an interview, a senior Egyptian government official took aim at President Obama’s call for a political transition to begin “now”.

But the White House was not backing down. “I want to be clear,” said Robert Gibbs, the press secretary. “ ‘Now’ started yesterday.”

The Obama administration seemed determined to put as much daylight as possible between Obama and Mubarak, with Gibbs again raising the spectre of a cutoff of American aid to the Mubarak government. “There are things that the government needs to do,” he said. “There are reforms that need to be undertaken. And there are opposition entities that have to be included in the conversations as we move toward free and fair elections.”

Those elections are currently scheduled for September, but State Department spokesman Philip J Crowley said: “The sooner that can happen, the better.”

As evidence of how far the rift has gone, a senior Egyptian official reached out to a reporter to criticise Obama’s remarks, saying the Mubarak government has “a serious issue with how the White House is spinning this... Mubarak’s primary responsibility is to ensure an orderly and peaceful transfer of power. We can’t do that if we have a vacuum of power.”