Yesterday, the Egyptians got their million-man march. The crowd in Cairo’s Tahrir (Freedom) Square, plus more crowds in Alexandria, Suez and Ismailia, made up that number under the watchful eye of the army.
They also got a step toward what they’ve been demanding for the last week: President Hosni Mubarak’s departure. Mubarak has announced that he would not contest the next presidential election in September.
The Egyptian march was a remarkable event for a number of reasons.
First, this was the first time that we had a vast crowd in an Arab capital without the old antics of burning American and Israeli flags and shouting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”