modern revolutionary tactics

[Alexander Romanov]

sorry, have been busy. A.

 

Update : Since I wrote these words …. Mubarak has indeed left office.

 

We are all Egyptians now. 

The protests in Egypt continue despite President Hosni Mubarak’s 

refusal to leave office. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, have 

taken to the street to show their contempt peacefully. 

 

Every time Mubarak refuses to budge, more people show up on the streets.

Newscasters, even those on Al Jazeera, talk about this spontaneous uprising as 

if it just happened one day. I don’t think anything could be further from the truth. 

 

After 17 days it’s obvious that the Egyptian resistance had a plan.

Images of Egyptian citizens shaking hands with the military and welcoming them 

onto the streets have been flashed all around the world. It’s like the 60s when the 

hippies would greet the military with flowers and invite them to lay down their arms. 

 

It’s a lesson in nonviolent resistance.

It begs the question, have the Tunisians and the Egyptians 

started a new world war with fifth-generation, or beyond, tactics ?

 

Reviewing the events, it’s difficult to dispute that the protesters had a 

clear strategy. It began with a quasi-peaceful takeover of Liberation Square, 

where protesters were fired upon by Hosni Mubarak’s state security police force. 

Live ammunition and tear gas injured or killed hundreds of Egyptians, however 

amazingly they maintained their bearing.

 

Interestingly, after the assault by police forces on protesters, their numbers in 

Liberation Square grew larger. Once again, newscasters called it a spontaneous 

reaction to events, but we were beginning to see the shape of the protesters’ strategy.

 

Next, police were withdrawn from the square, and military forces were dispatched. 

It looked like it could be the final showdown, but the protesters’ strategy wasn’t going 

to force that issue. Instead of confrontation, they greeted the military like conquering 

heroes, shaking their hands and hugging them like they were old friends or family. 

It’s not often when you’re in the military you get that kind of reception.

 

Soon the military stated that they weren’t there to quell the protests, rather to 

protect the protesters rights to peaceful demonstration. Chanting “Peace, peace,” 

they continued their nonviolent assemblage in Liberation Square despite Mubarak’s 

mandated curfew.

 

Next there was looting, and Mubarak blamed the protesters. Instead, protesters 

apprehended the looters who were revealed to be elements of Mubarak’s security 

police posing as protesters. It was an attempt to discredit the protesters as lawless. 

Shades of Operation Cointelpro.

 

Realizing his tactical error, either Mubarak withdrew the police, 

or they left of their own volition, and the military reiterated its neutrality. 

After each confrontation the numbers in the square and at other protests around 

Egypt grew larger, and that might’ve been the keystone of the protesters’ strategy.

 

When Mubarak would try to squash the protests, the numbers of protesters in the 

street increased. Initially estimated to be in the thousands, by the 17th day people 

were talking about millions of people in the street demanding Mubarak’s resignation. 

Millions of people chanting, “Peace, peace,” and “Mubarak must leave,” seemed to

 get our attention.

 

There is a reality today, and that is no citizens’ militia can to stand up against a formal 

military, especially one receiving financial support from the United States. 

The firepower differential is simply too great, so the Egyptian people escalated from 

fourth-generation to fifth, sixth or maybe even a 10th generation warfare in Liberation Square.

 

It was a classic example of nonviolent resistance, daring Mubarak and his 

thugs to show themselves for the butchers that they are. These were brave people, 

willing to give their lives for a cause in which they believed. To this point over 100 

protesters have been killed by Mubarak’s security police. The protesters have shown 

incredible restraint in refusing to let violence beget violence.

 

Knowing that images from the streets of Egypt would be beamed around the 

world at the speed of light, the Egyptian people challenged Mubarak to be himself. 

For a while he obliged, and the world was horrified as peaceful protesters were slaughtered. 

Soon the whole world was on the side of the protesters as they 

took a page out of Gandhi’s playbook.

 

This isn’t an accident, rather it’s a finely choreographed act of asymmetrical 

warfare against a superior force. Superior in the sense of firepower, but not in 

the sense of justice. Recognizing that right was on their side, the Egyptian people 

stood to be counted, and it’s an infectious posture that is spreading throughout the 

Middle East, and hopefully the world.

 

Every display of brute force on the part of Mubarak was met by a counterattack 

from the protesters in the form of larger numbers in the streets. They openly challenged 

Mubarak to gun them all down, and he blinked in this internationally televised game of chicken.

 

This is the “massive global political awakening” of which Zbigniew Brezinski 

has been warning, and to which world leaders seem to have been not listening.

Far from an Islamic revolution, this is a coalition of students, young people, labor, 

and intellectuals with some Muslim groups going along for the ride. 

This is, indeed, a formidable citizen army.

 

We’ve seen the game plan, and it’s a good one. 

Generate a crowd of thousands and challenge those in power to commit atrocities. 

Then counterattack by putting tens of thousands in the streets, daring them to escalate again. 

With a global communications network in place, it’s impossible 

to prevent images of the battles from spreading all around the world. 

They’ve changed it from a battle of guns to a battle of ideas, and have 

taken control of the narrative. These are, indeed, ultimate warriors.

 

Sun Tzu, the legendary Chinese warrior, said the army that knows that right is on 

its side will be the one that prevails, no matter the disparity in forces. It appears, 

although the government forces held all the guns, that Sun Tzu was correct. 

Right was on the side of the Egyptian people, and they prevailed.

 

While I expect the numbers in Liberation Square will diminish, I don’t believe 

these warriors operate under any misconception that the war is over. They will 

stay there until terms of the government’s surrender have been determined, 

and the paperwork is signed. They now understand the power of numbers and the 

strategies behind nonviolent resistance and asymmetrical warfare.

 

Brezinski was right, and the powers that be didn’t act. 

The massive global political awakening has begun, and it will spread anywhere that people are 

courageous enough to stand up for what is right against tyranny. Who knows, it might even catch on here.

 

Every general in the world has to be shitting himself, watching the Egyptian 

security police chased out of town by people who didn’t even have cap pistols. 

As the new age dawns, their relevance wanes and they’re soon to be discarded 

as nothing more than dinosaur bones. A fitting ending for evil men, and a triumph for goodness and virtue. 

We are all Egyptians now.

[Alexander Romanov]

thanks kamala

as for your point about the police and military, they are being used and they will come to realize that fact sooner rather than later. who are the real criminals ? the mega rich of course, the ones in power.

A

 

[Alexander Romanov]

" Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world.

Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." 

 Margaret Mead

 

[Trudy]

It is indeed a great example of what the Egyptians have shown us. But you had it in an earlier post of josev about a date of January 11, 2011 ... That the world would not be the same again !!! ... is this already happened? or do you refer to the rebellion worldwide. The most rush is in the Muslim countries. 

We think in the western countries that we have made it, nothing is further from the truth !!! We live in a modern slavery ... it is time for a revolution of the western countries ... for better wages ... free energy (which is already 60 years present on our earth) ... and so on...