Heads under the treads.

• Author: Walker, Jesse
• Position: Artifact - Military in control in Egypt - Brief article

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THE INDEPENDENT journalist Thanassis Cambanis took this photo in Tahrir Square as thousands of Egyptians gathered to demand an end to Hosni Mubarak's dictatorship. The protesters had allowed the tanks into the square to help protect the Egyptian Museum from Mubarak's brownshirts. "Ever since," Cambanis wrote on his blog, "the army has tried to move them further." Demonstrators took turns blocking the machines' path to keep them from pressing forward.

On February II, Mubarak finally bowed to popular pressure and stepped down. One reason for his resignation is that the army brass said they wouldn't stand by him anymore. And one reason the generals did that was a fear of mutiny in the lower ranks, where many conscripts seemed more sympathetic to the crowds than to the officers...