The police state of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was under heavy siege yesterday.

Mubarak dissolved his government after midnight local time Saturday, promising reforms and urging calm — after calling out the army earlier as rioters burned a police station in Suez and destroyed his national party headquarters in Cairo.

In Washington, President Obama used measured rhetoric to express support for the Egyptian people — making it clear, without saying so, that he considers Mubarak himself to be excess baggage.

Fine.

Whether iron-fisted dictatorships can survive the Internet age is an interesting — and very much open — question.

China got past Tiananmen Square only with massive force — and that was 21 years ago.

But if Mubarak tried to replicate that — and the army stayed with him — it’s unlikely he could withstand the ensuing international disapprobation.

The fact is that Egypt’s unrest is rooted much more in economics than it is in politics. Endemic poverty is the problem — and the best way out is the ballot box, not the bayonet.

The Egyptian protesters are demanding the right to choose their leaders — and, fundamentally, freedom from three decades under Mubarak’s yoke.

Which puts the United States in a bind, having supported Mubarak for all those years.

Again, Obama’s words make it clear that a hedging of bets is well under way — and perhaps not only on Egypt.

This is, obviously, a departure. The US has a long history of supporting dictatorships, with mixed results. That policy worked splendidly during South Korea’s early years — but not so well in Iran.

Strongmen can create stability — but, over time, they can’t make it last.

Mubarak seems to have survived “Angry Friday.” But will he last?