http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/2011122103729351285.html
Concludes:
Far from being a "state within a state", as they are often described, the militaries in countries such as Egypt and Syria are in fact deeply embedded within the core institutions that affect every aspect of their respective societies. It is for precisely this reason that the armies of Yemen, Syria and Libya brutally suppressed popular cries for the end of the old order, while in Egypt the SCAF has stymied all efforts to dismantle the regime. Any true revolution would necessarily have to rescind the privileges enjoyed by the military, and in fact, rebuild the state on an entirely new foundation.
This is the real challenge facing the revolutionaries. The army has maintained its monopoly on the use of force internally, and has even manipulated its power to develop a parallel system of justice, routinely trying civilians in military courts. In Egypt, the SCAF has prosecuted more than 12,000 Egyptian civilians since January - many more than were tried in military courts during the Mubarak era.
When Ali al-Silmi, the deputy prime minister of the SCAF-appointed government put forward a document of guidelines asserting continued military privileges under a new constitution, it confirmed the worst fears of the youth of the revolution. In fact, it was this brazen call for no accountability or oversight for the military budget that set off the latest round of mass protests, Tahrir 2.0, as it has been termed by some.
Internationally, as the protector of Western interests, the military continues to be the primary focal point of foreign policies from Moscow to Washington. That the United States would go forward with military aid and weapons sales to Egypt following last week's appalling attacks against peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square is disappointing but not surprising. Notwithstanding Obama's call for the transition to civilian rule, the US has not shown a willingness to depart from its deep commitments to the Egyptian military. However, recent reports that dock workers at Suez refused to permit the entry of a seven-ton shipment of tear gas canisters is a sign of things to come.
Egyptians are in the process of redrawing the figurative borders of their state, which requires a realignment of the military's role and the expansion of a civilian government reflective of the popular will, irrespective of the narrow interests of the military and its foreign sponsors. As the emerging political class (and its Islamist contingent in particular) has insisted that it would not challenge the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement, the underlying assumption that has gone unstated is that this has always been a treaty between the Israeli state and the Egyptian military. A reconstitution of the state, with a new basis for its legitimacy, would necessarily require that all elements of its policy would be subject to the authority and oversight of a government born out of that process.