The Blossom Of Arab Spring

[robby]

Here's a link to an Israeli article that details the radicalization of the Arab world that grew out of the Arab Spring uprising. The US State Department didn't want to believe this was happening, as they had been one of the forces supporting these popular revolutions.

"The Americans were constantly trying to supply explanations and excuses for events in the post-revolution Arab states, and simply ignored the problems," one senior Israeli official said, adding, "In practice the administration's ability to affect events in the Arab world has decreased immensely."



The recent video trailer, lately re-dubbed with provocative insults, and posted to YouTube by an Egyptian ex-con, is merely a trigger that shows us the shape of things to come.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israeli-foreign-ministry-officials-say-u-s-ignored-arab-wrath-1.465210

Comments

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Of course, Israeli officials are going to say that. And of course they are going to take every moment of violence in Arab lands as an AHA! moment where they can say "See! THey are violent psychos!"

Only in both the context of Libya and Egypt there are instances of people overstating the threat in order to stay in the world that they are accustomed to. With Libya there is a liberal pro-west government and anti-Islamist protests the next day. In Egypt, the army stopped the rioters from the most homicidal acts.

Regardless, the need for caution does not mitigate the reasons for optimism for Arab Spring. Just assuming that it's all going to go to hell is just as myopic as thinking that there will be no problem.

[robby.livejournal.com]

There's no question that there are large segments of the population in both Libya and Egypt that want democracy, but in the struggle for power, hard-line mullahs can stir up a different, reactionary, segment at Friday prayers.

I read about an interview with a Taliban official, about Afghanistan when the US leaves. Asked if Al Qaeda would be allowed again to stage attacks against the US, he replied "We won't need them, we will carry out the attacks ourselves"