Dying for Freedom
As in Iran, now in Egypt, news people are reporting that some numbers of protesters have been killed. My best wishes go with the people who risk themselves for their human rights. I hope our government supports them in their movement, and that no more lives will be lost.
This footage, taken on the Kasr Al Nile bridge in Cairo on the 28th of January, is astonishing. The people push back against the police who try to stop them.
I’ll gather some resource links for understanding this conflict in the space below.
• Al Jazeera’s English language live stream has ongoing, on-site video and commentary of unfolding events. They are reporting more than 100 deaths as of 10 am MST.
• Al Jazeera English news site and The Guardian’s on-site live blog have updates as well if you can’t get the video.
• Five Things to Understand About the Egyptian Riots – The New Republic
• Analysis from Robert Fisk at The Independent A people defies its dictator, and a nation’s future is in the balance
• Analysis from Mark Lynch at Foreign Policy. I thought this segment of a recent post was important:
It’s crucial to understand that the United States is not the key driver of the Egyptian protest movement. They do not need or want American leadership — and they most certainly are not interested in “vindicating” Bush’s freedom agenda or the Iraq war, an idea which almost all would find somewhere between laughable, bewildering, and deeply offensive.