Professor Immanuel Wallerstein Weighs In On the Arab Revolt

[Rakhmetov]

"The great loser of the second Arab Revolt is clearly the United States. One can see it by the incredible vacillation of the U.S. government in the present moment. The United States (like every other major power in the world) places one criterion before all others – regimes friendly to it. Washington wants to be on the side of the winner, provided the winner is not hostile. What to do then in a situation like that of Egypt, which presently is a virtual client-state of the United States? The United States is reduced to calling publicly for more “democracy,” no violence, and negotiations. Behind the scenes, they seem to have told the Egyptian army not to embarrass the United States by shooting too many people. But can Mubarak survive without shooting a lot of people?"

http://www.iwallerstein.com/the-second-arab-revolt-winners-and-losers/

[x359594]

There seems to be a difference or even rivalry between the Army and internal security forces. Among Al Jeezera feeds I heard one interviewee say that the Army had 300,000 troops in contrast to the forces of internal repression which numbered a million. So far it seems that the Army is tacitly behind the people.