From Independent.
"One has to remember, that on a fundamental level, the revolt in Egypt isn't only an attempt to throw off the Mubarak dictatorship, it is also a direct challenge to Egypt's role as a vassal state inside the American Empire, a state that is 'stable', under control, and harmless to US interests in the region.
The Egyptian elite are really surrogates for US imperial power, the local, Egyptian face, of imperialism, Mubarak is, in essence, merely a brutal mask hiding the real face of Obama, so Obama can smile and make pretty, meaningless speeches - propaganda - whilst Mubarak is left to do the dirty work.
So, a defeat for Mubarak is a colossal defeat for US imperial strategy as well, and this is why the stakes are so high. Loose Egypt and, eventually, the rest of the region will follow, including the Gulf States, which would be a massive setback for imperialism.
The Egyptian people understand this too well. The Egyptians who hold up teargas cannisters stamped with the words 'made in the USA' can see where, ultimately, their oppression is coming from. Even their army isn't really an independent Egyptian army, it's an army designed to control them and defend US interests inside Egypt, defending the social order from the Egyptian people, not from any outside threat, but from the enemy within, the Egyptian people.
The reason this revolution could turn into a bloody civil war is because the Americans cannot allow freedom and democracy in Egypt to take hold. The US elite fears freedom and democracy, at home, and in the world. A country that is independent of the US empire and pursues its own national interests first, is automatically characterized as an enemy of the United States.
But will ordinary Egyptian soldiers obey their masters and openly oppress their own people, will they fire on their brothers and sisters? Will they go down fighting for Mubarak and his American masters? I doubt it very much. I think Mubarak has lost control of Egypt, and the longer he clings to power and the longer the United States supports him, the closer the Americans will come to loosing everything, and not just in Egypt."