Mubarak's Fall and the Domino Effect

Now that Mubarak has handed full control to the Egyptian military, there's been a bit of talk about this revolution setting a precedence that may bring about more demonstrations around the Middle East and "inspire change" in the region. Personally I think this is an isolated event where an obviously corrupt ruler took everything from his people and the people couldn't take anymore, but I did think this is an interesting question to discuss.

How do you feel about the Egyptian Revolution and do you think it will create a Domino Effect for the rest of the Middle East?

Ever since the decolonizational era the people of Africa and the Middle-East have been obressed by dictators and tyrants. Now that the people of the region can see the power the people have, enough to end a 61 year regime, they will rise up. It was bound to happen, and it finally has. It's time the people of the region fight for their independence from these regimes.

As for me, I support these revolutions. And I have said it before, its about time.

If anything the Egyptian "Revolution" was following another "precedent," Tunisia, and depending on who wins out in the upcoming elections, Iran. It will be a disaster if the MB manage to take power, and since they are the only major organized party, they likely will. Hopefully we won't see an Islamist Egypt, but I would have to say it's nearly certain without any outside interference.

Honestly Mubarak was one of the best things going for us in the Middle East/North Africa. Just like Saleh, Mubarak guaranteed that a worse alternative had no chance to take power. All things considered, he didn't even that bad of a job as "dictator." Compared to the other autocrats we ally with to keep things stable and secure, Mubarak was Nelson Mandela.

In all likelihood, we won't see a cascade effect, as the governments that might suffer from similar fates are aware of the danger their people pose and have cracked down just recently. Iran, for example, is going to find it hard to reconcile their foreign policy of congratulating Egypt for its push to have free and open elections with their domestic policy of jailing, exiling, and executing political rivals. As a result they have essentially shut off all access to information about the Egyptian situation.

now that Mubarak is out does that mean that internet connection has been restored in Egypt?

It was brought up after they saw the reality it was not working. It was also ment to keep the crimes of the government hidden, which also did not work. Besides the fact, it was lifted when he was still in power.

I would say its an isolated event, I don't think the other Arab nations will overthrow their leaders anytime soon.

Its amazing that these civilizations have been around for more than 2000 years.
While the U.S. has only been here for 300 years.

I think that nothing will happen to Iraq, Iran, etc..., thus making the "domino" effect not happening.

Thats my opinoin.

Egypt should be allowed to make their own decisions and their own mistakes, not to say the revolution was a mistake, but electing the Muslim Brotherhood most certainly would be, at least in my western atheistic books. Then again Egypt as far as I'm aware in terms of Muslim countries is more liberal than most, so hopefully that will shine through and they won't put up with extremist Islam in their country.

As for the domino effect, overthrowing a malevolent dictator is rarely a bad thing, and certainly if other countries see how effective it was in Egypt they will grow more confident themselves, and the more countries do it, the more confident the ones who are teetering on the edge become and it might be enough to push them over, Africa and the middle east need change for the good, and getting rid of the fascists who run their countries is a good start!

If the Muslim Brotherhood is elected suddenly Egypt must be invaded by the US saying something about national security.

Because the US getting involved in the politics of other countries has worked so well in the past...

The US is like a small child it needs attention.

What? The US wouldn't invade Egypt under any conceivable scenario.

Usually does. Only a few times in the entire history of the US has our meddling done any real harm to our long-term policy goals.

I'm inclined to disagree with you there, in the short time of it's existence the USA has managed to make a real mess of it's foreign affairs, moreso, when the CIA got involved! and I'm referring to how it failed other countries, not neccissarily itself, countries like Iran and Iraq, England when it decided supplying the IRA would be a good idea. The Vietnam war was an absolute farce. The modern Iraq war I actually feel was a good thing but that was entered under a false pretense, I'm not a communist but their ridiculous overblown paranoia of it was and to some degrees on the far right (who are parodies of themselves) still is a problem. Korean war, I'll give America that one, that was a good job. Maybe America is still standing tall but America's involvement in other countries has had a negative impact on said countries.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a country's foreign policies from the perspective of other countries will obviously produce negative results.

The military can hold themselfs. The egyptian army has never failed the people and has always supported them. At least the USA has lost their greatest puppet ally in the region.

That is a good thing for pretty much only Iran and radical Islamists.

I'm sorry, going into another country and fucking them up is not good foreign policy, and just because your fine because it was happening on someone else's land is not reason to not care. as I've said, Korean War was a good war, the South Koreans were essentially being invaded and America stopped them being invaded so having good foreign policy from other countries perspectives is perfectly attainable, of course from North Korea's perspective it was bad but they were the invading party, they were from any person outside the veil of ignorances position in the wrong. When they messed with the Election in Iran they made things worse. When they went into Vietnam, worse. South America worse. America's foreign policy has been a complete shambles.