EGYPT POST #3

[imagines]

eta: New ONTD_P livepost just posted! Yay!

BAD SHIT GOING DOWN.

So, last night in Alexandria, there was an altercation between a pro-Mubarak group (who may have been plainclothes police and/or paid by the government to be there, said Al Jazeera) and the rest of the protestors. That was nasty enough.

Now it's gotten worse, this time in Cairo.

Comments

[gerald_duck]

I don't think this is going to turn into WWIII. However, it's worth noting that Egypt borders Libya (Gadaffi), Sudan (the Southern oil-rich half has just voted to separate from the poorer North that borders Egypt; also the Darfur situation) and Israel (Gaza Strip, etc.). It's only just across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia (most fundamentalist Islamic nation in the World; US-sponsored theocratic hereditary dictatorship). Israel also borders Jordan (wants the West Bank back), Syria (wants the Golan Heights back), Lebanon (wants Lebanon back). Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia border Iraq (hohum). Iraq borders Kuwait (oil-rich state; despotic monarchy reinstalled by US intervention in early nineties). Syria and Iraq border Turkey (at war with Greece over Cyprus, whenever Greece can afford it). Iraq and Tukey border Iran (might have a nuke soon, just like Israel and Pakistan), as does Afghanistan (completely fubar hellhole, since the time of everyone's great-great-great-grandfathers). Afghanistan borders Pakistan (disputed Kashmiri border with India; nukes; political assassinations; feuding tribal warlords; Islamic fundamentalists; porous borders).

That's a mess three thousand miles wide containing hundreds of millions of people, the holiest places of all of the World's top three religions, the majority of the oil and a vital trade route linking Europe to Asia. I really hope it doesn't all suddenly go very wrong!