In terms of history repeating itself, the current situation in Egypt most reminds me of the lead-up to the Tiananmen Square massacre. Egypt is, by my understanding, a heavily militarised nation, with an entire parallel infrastructure for service personnel: their own supermarkets, leisure facilities, etc. The entire military is strongly motivated to preserve their privileges under the status quo and insulated from the consequences of damage to the civilian infrastructure, so things could get quite ugly.