Where the hell are all the pro-Mubarak supporters coming from?

They can't all be plain-clothes police officers, can they?

Either way, how the hell did this country go from the pure ecstasy of Mubarak vowing to step down to the brink of civil war?

are part of the security apparatus. Al-Jazeera has been showing the ID cards of police involved in the fight.

in the status quo. They have much to lose if Mubarek flees and democracy takes root. It is very easy to see how this amount of people could be mustered to cause violence.

Members of the secret police. Cronies, of secret police. Rent-a-mobs, you name it. They're threatened and yes they are going to strike back.

There are EIGHTY Million Egyptians. There were One to
Two Million Anti-Gov. Protestors. Where does the other
75 or so million stand. Apparently some of them stand
with Mubarak and the status quo.

Mubarak said I will die in Egypt.

make it appear that there is real division. Curious the violence and the 'pro-mub' mobs at the same time that the internet service is restored.

Obama declined to explicitly endorse the protesters demand that Mubarak leave now -- not nine months from now after the planned September election. This gave Mubarak and his regime one last chance to stay in power.

Had Obama backed the popular uprising in his speech, the square would now be filled with people celebrating his immediate departure, rather than protesters being attacked by plain-clothes Mubarak police.

Notwithstanding Obama's failure here, I remain confident Mubarak will be gone by the end of this week.

However, because he is now seen by Egyptians as being on the wrong side of history, I think Obama will have limited influence on what happens next.

for starters..

paid provocateurs

1.2 million cops, and there ya are. Wouldn't need more than a small fraction of them to pull this off.

After several days of services interrupted and security thin, there will always be people who simply want things to go back to "normal," and keep their eyes shut to the injustices that brought on the demonstrations in the first place.

not violent and aggressive as we've seen.

Makes me think not many citizens who aren't bought off are engaging against the anti-Mubarek protestors.

are perpetrating, those ordinary people will not come back.

All they have to do is feel threatened, and be in a group.

I think it's a mistake to dehumanize a mob with "oh, they're all paid thugs." It justifies violence against them.

...the past few days. They have been reported to be 1 million strong, but Egypt has like 8 million residents, so as things get worse, more people are voicing their displeasure, and they aren't all against the government. The protests have caused everything to shut down and food and gas supplies are depleting and people are getting pissed at the anti-Mubarak protesters because of the shut downs and food shortages.

They have a lot to lose if he goes. They are not rich enough to emigrate.

As I scanned twitter, National Petroleum workers for example.

They don't have the numbers but they do have the impunity to use violence. They are surrounding peaceful protesters and beating them, throwing Molotov cocktails, trashing press equipment. There is a report Anderson Cooper has been hurt. :(

I don't have the link, but I posted it. It was noticed because the cargo planes landed after curfew.

And Mubarak had plenty of time to gather his minions in the last 2 days while the Army sneakily blocked all entrances
( exits) in the square, so the people are trapped. One voice report from a woman in the square awhile ago, saying the people cannot get out, the exits are blocked by tanks and pro-Mubarak thugs.

I worried last night about the protesters being "kettled" in the square.
take note if you ever plan to march....stay out of confined areas.

lashing out at the people.

Poor, uneducated folk with essentially no stake in society have been an important resource for authoritarian regimes since the tsars recruited their Black Hundreds. They respond to a crude version of patriotism and are easily incited to violence against "elitists" whom the authorities accuse of wrecking the nation.