When people are living under harsh political circumstances, it’s perfectly natural for them to seek change.
We have witnessed that throughout parts of the Middle East and North Africa in recent months, as citizens of several nations have taken to the streets to demand an end to corrupt regimes.
In Egypt, mass protests eventually managed to drive longtime President Hosni Mubarak from power earlier this year. We cannot blame the protesters. Mubarak had often ruled as a dictator.
But it remains painfully unclear that Mubarak’s autocratic regime has been replaced by a better one, much less by a truly free society and representative government.
Powerful military leaders have stepped into Mubarak’s place, and it is evident from renewed mass protests that the public is not happy with the generals’ leadership. As happened when Mubarak was in power, thugs apparently goaded to action by the generals have begun violent attacks against the protesters, and Egypt’s new leaders are issuing other thinly disguised threats against the demonstrators.