Egypt's Internet Revolution Succeeds

Mubarak didn't resign because of anything Obama did or didn't do. He resigned because of the pressure imposed upon him by the media, Twitter, Facebook and the Internet.

The protesters in Cairo are jubilant, because it appears that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has resigned. This is a stunning turn of events.

“This is the Internet revolution, ” explains Wael Ghonim. “I call it Revolution 2.0.”

Indeed, the uprising shows that autocracies cannot long survive the sharp and focused glare of their own people, backed up by the omnipresent care and concern of the international community.

But now the truly hard work begins. The White House and its supporters will be tempted to interpret this triumph as a vindication of their quiet and relatively hands-off approach to Egypt. This would be a mistake. The Egyptian revolution succeeded in spite of Obama’s errors and mistakes, not because of them.

Obama, in fact, was lucky. Mubarak resigned not so much because of anything Obama did or did not do. Mubarak resigned really because of the pressure imposed upon him by CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, Twitter, Facebook and the Internet.

The worldwide display of television images coming out of Cairo threatened soon to make Egypt a pariah state. And in the end, it seems, the Egyptian military and the Egyptian elite decided this was too high a price to pay to stay back the forces of freedom and enlightenment.

Without American leadership and involvement, liberal democracy almost certainly will fail in Egypt and the Middle East.  Congress and the Obama administration should begin by pledging a $2.5-billion aid package to Egyptian civil society elements to help initiate the transition toward liberal democracy -- now.

John Guardiano blogs at www.ResoluteCon.Com, and you can follow him on Twitter: @JohnRGuardiano.

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