On Mubarak

I asked Brookings Institution’s Bob Kagan, a member of the Egypt Working Group, what happened. He explained that the deciding factor was the “military’s refusal to shoot at protesters or let protesters be attacked by police or rent-a-thugs. That has always been the key.” And more specfically it was the outraged reaction of the protesters to Mubarak’s defiant speech last night, Bob explained, that was the final straw. “I would guess the basic message from military was that this thing was out of control, they were not going to stop it, and only the answer was his departure. This happens all the time.”
Referring to popular revolts in the Philippines, South Korea and Chile, Bob colorfully described deposed dictators as akin to “Mafia chiefs, who start being bad for business. And as Michael Corleone said to Tom Hagen, ‘All our people are businessmen.’ Their loyalty’s based on that.”