Link to web article here.

Today is one of those pivotal days that will forever be ingrained in the memory of Egyptians. It doesn't matter who you are, what you believe or what side you are on; August 14th will be remembered as the day the military took action against mass Egyptian protests.

And at the end of the day we are all Egyptians. We must accept that we will all have different opinions, and that it is our right to have them. We must accept that we have the right to life, and human dignity. I woke up this morning to see what I believed would be the inevitable loss of life. I think everyone expected that something of this magnitude would happen just after Eid. Maybe to avoid the action being called the Ramadan or Eid massacre. There are those who watched the same images I did, who are thinking "Finally, the military did something about those people I disagree with." Some may be actually be wishing they kill them all. Some will be angry as hell, and their views and actions will be radicalised. Others will mourn the dead.

I am simply disappointed and saddened. I am disappointed that despite countless warnings, people still chose to bring their families to the sites that they knew could potentially erupt into a battleground. Parents have the responsibility to take care of their children; if the military announces that they will be dispersing the crowds, and you still bring your kids to Raba'a or El Nahda, then you deserve to be arrested or even lose custody of your children. 

Children aren't pawns to be used in a time of political turmoil, and they should be given a fair chance to life. I am disappointed with the outrageous claims about what is happening. For example, the BBC interviewed a woman who claims that she saw the military burning women in tents. This couldn't have happened as she said it did, because the “tents” aren't enclosed, they are simply pieces of fabric blocking the sun. This I can confirm with my own eyes, when I Revisited the Islamess in El Nahda.

I am disappointed with the constant speculation. When did we become a nation of liars? Is lying not frowned upon in Islam and by people with common decency? Between the military and the Brotherhood, honesty is an elusive concept, and we Egyptians must sift through all the allegations to find a shard of truth. People should be reporting that they don't know how many have been killed, that the turmoil is ongoing, and that there are casualties and will be more to come. Throwing out random numbers does nothing but confuse the masses and create misinformation. 

I am disappointed that gunfire is involved, from both the protesters and the military. I am disappointed that we seem to forget that there is much to learn from history and that, after the bloodshed, all problems are solved around a table. Is our memory so short that we are willing to put blind faith in the authorities, when we should always be questionning them and holding them accountable? Most of all, I am saddened that lives are needlessly being lost in an action that will not solve any of the problems we face.

So what happens next? Of course anything I would say would be more speculation, but I think it is safe to assume that the fight will spill into the next couple of days, and that we will see more radical actions taking place in the coming months. Don't be fooled; today will not be the end of anything. In fact, it may just be marking the moment everything got worse.