The people of Egypt will not cease protests until President Mubarak steps down from power. After nearly thirty years of corruption the time has come for action. President Mubarak’s regime has been riddled with unlawful arrests, media censorship, and unfair elections. The US has made numerous attempts to put pressure on the President to correct some of the faults in the regime. The President, unfortunately, has done little to change, leading up to the start of this past week’s protests.
    The Egyptian protests have been huge. A goal of one million protesters was set and surpassed on Tuesday, February 1st. Social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook have been used as rallying tools to get people to come together and spread the word about protesting. Opposition leaders have started tweeting messages to their followers. As a result, Mubarak has shut down all internet access within the country, something people in the United States could never dream of.
    Many protesters have rallied around opposition leader, Mohamed ElBaradei. He is a former Nobel Peace Prize winner and the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency. ElBaradei has had a complicated relationship with the United States. At one point, the Bush Administration tried to remove him from his position as the director of the agency. The US really has no idea what to expect if ElBaradei were to become a more prominent leader. As it stands under Mubarak, Egypt has pledged their allegiance to the US. Egypt remains an essential ally for any hope of a stable Middle East, an already daunting task. As a result of the massive protests, Mubarack so far has declared he would not seek reelection- but only time will tell if he will actually step down from an office he has already held on to for thirty years.