Fall Of The Dinosaurs

Friday 1o:oo pm

I've been up almost all night and this is the first chance I have gotten to write a few words about the fall of Mubarak.  Let me begin by noting what an utterly repulsive and disgusting creature he is, in every sense. And my only hope is that he doesn't make it out of Egypt to live out his last years with billions of loot and a case of Grecian Formula.

Not sure what the victorious protest movement can or will want to do in the coming days, but this guy and his cronies deserve to be tried and allowed to die in one of the many dungeons they have maintained as horror chambers for the last three decades.

You needn't be a rocket scientist to figure out all the challenges ahead for Egypt. But you have no heart and no soul if you do not deeply rejoice in watching what we've seen over the last 18 days. The absolute decency and humanity of the Egyptian people are quite moving for me. Their ability to resist 30 years of oppression and then to respond and react with the maturity, dignity and mutual aid that we have seen can only be characterized as the purest expression of our better angels.  I found the whole thing to be quite restorative and I salute those who stared down one of the most corrupt and brutal regimes in the world.

I also want to note, in passing, that while he was late and unsure in coming to the game, Barack Obama fully acquitted himself today with his own display of dignity and compassion when he recognized the valor of the Egyptian people. I am not proud of the history (nor am I particularly optimistic about the future) of our relations with Egypt, but for a few minutes today I was delighted to hear an American president speak the way he did about a Third World revolution. Bravo.

The larger political implications here are, however, rather sobering.  The garish display of just what a loathsome, reptilian gargoyle Mubarak is repelled the entire decent world (except for jagoff demagogues like Beck and Limbaugh who openly aligned themselves with a fascist dictator).  Problem is, this gargoyle is the guy we have banking on (quite literally) to keep the peace for us in the Middle East.

Last time I checked, the Bush administration plunged us into a hellhole of a useless war in Iraq in order to bring democracy to the region. And now we see that the birth of however imperfect democracies in that region occur in spite of our policy, not because of it. While the U.S. has spent billions and billions in the name of democracy to bankroll the likes of Mubarak and the Saudi royal family, and the gangsters who rule the Gulf, Yemen and who used to sit atop Tunisia, it was precisely the pro-democracy Arab activists who languished in the jails financed by our tax dollars.  Isn't that rather precious?

Even now, in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution, we hear the same  worried chatter about the specter of the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power in Cairo. Not gonna happen. But if it did? Do any of these hand-wringers have ANY idea what the Brotherhood really is? Or are these basically the same people who believe, or more likely want others to believe, that Barack Obama is a Muslim — as if that would matter.  The Brotherhood is no friend of mine. The Brotherhood, more to the point, is also infinitely more moderate a force than the pro-Iranian sectarians now ruling Iraq, the Islamic cult for which our children are sent to defend with their lives.

Just how low of an IQ must one possess to not immediately understand that regimes like that of Mubarak's — a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.S.— are the most effective incubators of Islamic radicalism?  Is it an accident that Egypt has, indeed, provided much of the intellectual leadership of the Islamic fringe? Might that have anything to do with having outlawed free expression for the last 20 or 30 years?

My sincere hope is to awake tomorrow, or next week, or ten days from now to see tens of thousands besieging the palaces in Amman, Jedda, Sanna, Damascus and Tripoli and with their passion and probably with too much blood bring about the sort of change that gangsters like Bush and Cheney not only were never sincere about but whom, with all of their efforts, have always opposed.

Props to USC journalism student and Neontommy.com graphic artist Ebony Bailey for the outta sight infographic!

Courtesy of Al Jazeera here is the footage from Tahrir Square the moment news broke of Mubarak's fall.