Egypt burning

There is a huge revolution going on in Egypt right now. People are protesting the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power for 30 years. Why should you care?

As Claire Berlinski says:

US military aid to Egypt totals over $1.3 billion annually. Your money, in other words, is keeping Mubarak in power. That government is now doing this to its people. Listen to the audio. It’s hard to say just what’s happening, given the media blackout, but clearly terrible things are happening in Egypt.

… The fact that we are supporting the Mubarak regime may not be immediately obvious to most Americans, but it is the central fact about America to every Egyptian alive–to 83 million people in the heart of the Middle East.

You can find coverage of the protests at the Daily Dish as well as Al Jazeera’s English language live stream. News may be intermittent as there have been reports that Internet access in Egypt has been cut, including social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

One thing I find very interesting about the protests is the prominent presence of women: Double X says they make up between 20 and 50 percent of the protesters.

Millions of people are watching Egypt as the situation unfolds. Will Mubarak be forced from power? Will the unrest spread to other Middle Eastern countries? Only time will tell.