And the official position today is...

Can we muse? There are strange things going on around the world, don't you think? Especially in the Middle East. I don't want to get into the politics today but I am amazed at the wide range of opinions being voiced about the events.

As I was driving home from playing golf today, the news on the radio informed me of Mubarak's resignation. Never mind that the pundits all over the U.S. were firmly convinced he was going to resign last night. Now we have the mad scramble to spin those positions into some kind of positive light.

Apparently, Mubarak needed the hint from the Egyptian military when the tanks around the Presidential Palace turned their guns toward the Palace and away from the "rabble" in the street. Forget all the heads of state giving him all that advice about stepping down. Once you lose the military in a dictatorship, the show is essentially over.

Maybe Mubarak thought he could pull off a China (think Tiananmen Square) and tough it out. That only worked in China because the military is solidly under the control of the political machine there.

We who live in the West, in free societies with solid democratic principles, do not understand the role of the military in third world countries and in dictatorships. I certainly don't. The general rule is that the military props up the ruling elite. I was stunned by the pundits speaking of the respect and love of the military by the Egyptian people. It seemed so unlike what I thought was the norm.

We had our period of unruly, protesting, crowds in the streets back in the 60's. We had the National Guard turned out to keep order. I don't recall anyone viewing them as a calming influence or treating them with great respect. In fact, the protesters seemed to see them as "jack-booted thugs" for the most part.

What a topsy-turvy world we live in today.