Put enough people on the streets and any network's grip on power will be challenged. How would one describe the ruling elite of Egypt: a veneer of a clan resting upon the longstanding hollowed out pillars of a one party state using sham democracy. The key point for the protestors was that their counterparts in Tunisia proved successful. That filled their counterparts within Egypy with hope, and the cycle of thuggish repression proves to be a battle of will for each individual who enters that street. Their motivation and their political goals are no doubt diverse and contradictory, but opposition to the police and the Mubaraks unites them.
Steve Coll, in the New Yorker, harks back to Tiananmen Square. There, protestors were scourged and defeated by the indiscriminate violence of the People's Liberation Army, whose soldiers obeyed orders. Armies are strange animals during times of turmoil. They can prove to be the tool of the state: tearing away the mannered excuses to show why the state wields a monopoly of force. In this instance: the death toll mounts rapidly, emigration soars and liberalism dies. Or the generals pull levers but the footsoldiers decide they have other ideas. If that happens, the regime is dead.
And we just learn that Mubarak has blinked: sacking his government and bowing to calls for reform. Mirage? If not, he could soon follow, as teh army coudl not be relied upon to back him.