At just after 6pm local time here, VP Omar Suleiman appeared on state TV and, in the briefest of speeches, announced the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. Months shy of the thirty-year anniversary of his ascension to power following the assassination of President Sadat, he's been ousted after two-and-a-half weeks of largely peaceful demonstrations that began in Cairo and Alexandria and soon spread to nearly every major Egyptian city, drawing people to the streets in numbers not only unprecedented in the Arab world but nearly unseen in the history of modern civil disobedience.
Al Jazeera International has an Egyptian girl on the line who between sobs is declaring that she never thought she'd live to see this day. I think that pretty well sums up what we're all feeling right now. Outside our apartment, cars are honking and faint sounds of celebratory explosions echo across from Midan Tahrir. Ya Masr!! Go Egypt!!!
This is a triumphal testament to the power of a people to determine its own destiny, a victory for democracy and free speech and liberty in the purest and oldest of senses.
Yes, I have reservations about the idea of a military junta ruling the country until the proposed September elections, but I won't go into those now. Let's leave this night for hope, optimism, and a great big congratulations to the people of Egypt.
Al Jazeera International has an Egyptian girl on the line who between sobs is declaring that she never thought she'd live to see this day. I think that pretty well sums up what we're all feeling right now. Outside our apartment, cars are honking and faint sounds of celebratory explosions echo across from Midan Tahrir. Ya Masr!! Go Egypt!!!
This is a triumphal testament to the power of a people to determine its own destiny, a victory for democracy and free speech and liberty in the purest and oldest of senses.
Yes, I have reservations about the idea of a military junta ruling the country until the proposed September elections, but I won't go into those now. Let's leave this night for hope, optimism, and a great big congratulations to the people of Egypt.
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