Arab Spring has Sprung – Now What?

Unless you’ve had your head completely in the sand (appropriate that) you’ve heard about the wave of revolutions that have swept many of the autocratic governments out in the Arab world.  The question that should concern everybody, especially we incarnates of the Great Satan in the west – is what comes next.  Obama is crowing, rightfully, about the emergence of democracy in the Arab countries which have been under the boot of despots since emerging from the colonial era.  I clearly remember the same feelings when the Shah was first ejected from Iran. For a very short time we in the West felt kind of good for the Iranian people and then we were introduced to his successor ayatollahs and have been paying the price of Carter’s inept foreign policy ever since with Iran’s state sponsored terrorism.  The Iranians traded one despot in the Shah for a sadistic brand of anachronistic evil that permeates all levels of their society and has consistently threatened to expand into the rest of the Muslim world.  Most people don’t realize how pervasive Iran’s efforts are in destabilizing the Middle East.  I hope Obama read the history of this sad episode and doesn’t repeat Carter’s well meant but hopelessly incompetent performance.  The U.S. should be proactive about demonstrating the benefits of true democratic processes and liberty.  Arabs clearly yearn for freedom but history has shown a sad predilection for succumbing to the worst elements of fanaticism.  You can see the danger presenting itself in Egypt where the large Christian population is feeling marginalized by a government headed into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood.  There are moderate elements of the brotherhood who see themselves as true patriots with Egypt’s best interests at heart.  We should be cultivating relationships with these people.  It is all too easy to label a group as terrorists just because it is Islamist because the fanatics have successfully redefined the non-Islamic world’s opinion of the religion.  The gallant people of Syria yearn for the same freedom their Egyptian, Tunisian, and Libyan brothers achieved.  It’s no surprise that the close Iranian ties of the Assads has backboned the brutal resistance to the clear wishes of the Syrian population.  A true representative, inclusive democracy is anathema to the ayatollahic Qom dwellers.  I go to bed each night hoping against hope that Obama is up to the challenge.  It’s all too easy to take credit for something and then shift attention to something sexier, especially in this election year.  There’s hard background work that should be happening right now to create future democratic partners among the Arab nations and not future adversaries.  We should also be exerting the highest levels of pressure on the Israelis to restrain their urges to strike out which will only polarize Arab opinion against the West and democracy.  The Wahabbi radicals that the Saudis produce in such large numbers and then export so they don’t pay the price in security in their own country are waiting for the opportunity to turn the Arab spring into their own version of medieval jihad which could result in a true nuclear winter if the moderates on all sides don’t find a sane avenue into a democratic future.

Future Friends or Victims?