Why Does the Arab Spring Seem Like an Alaskan Blizzard?

By Rich Kozlovich

I wonder at the way so many things are presented in the media.  As an example, they're claiming the internet played a large part in these uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, etc and they need to analyze the events of what happened.  Remember, this was presented in this way;

"The pro-democracy popular uprisings gripping the Arab world have ended or are seriously threatening long-entrenched dictatorships and repressive regimes".

Apparently they claim they need to analyze the effect of the internet on the 'Arab Spring' because it is clearly failing.   But even if the internet did play a role, so what?  I thought it was a pro-democracy movement.  So then what needs to be analyzed? 

Let's get real!  First, there is not now, nor was there ever a sense of democracy in this whole mess.  As Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey once noted; democracy was like riding on a train, and they would get off when we reach the right station.  This is part and parcel of Muslim thought.  Under the values stated within the Koran they are not required to keep any agreement made with unbelievers when it becomes opportune to abandon those agreements.  Democracy is a concept alien to the Muslim mind because they have been under the social influence of Islam for centuries.  And there is a reason the word Islam means “submission”. 

There is not now, nor will there ever be a democratic system of government within the Muslim world as it is understood by the West.  And even more so as Americans understand it.  There is something else we need to understand!  The rest of the West doesn’t understand democracy as we do either.   They are all - all -socialist states.  We really do need to get that, although the differences between us and them are dramatically disappearing, yet the American philosophical culture is radically different than the rest of the world.   It is even substantially different from our closest philosophical cousins such as Canada, England and even Australia, which is probably closest to us of them all.

Syria is in a disastrous mess where Russia is sending in planes of humanitarian assistance (whatever that means) and are taking Russian citizens back to Russia because conditions are so dangerous.  Within the city of Aleppo over thirty civilians were killed by rocket fire and it is believed that at least one surface to surface missile was launched at a target within the city. 

Tunisia’s prime minister, Hamadi Jebali,  has resigned, the opposition leader, Chookri Belaid has been assassinated and the country is rife with continuing and seemingly unsolvable political instability, which places the country’s fragile economy in ever greater jeopardy, especially since on Tuesday, Standard and Poor's downgraded Tunisia's credit rating saying that "a risk that the political situation could deteriorate further amid a worsening fiscal, external and economic outlook."  Now there is a “Duh” if I ever heard one. 

Does anyone think that which replaced Libya’s Qaddafi was much better?  There is no real government, the potential for more violence is very real, and the tendency in Muslim countries is to vote in undemocratic Islamists, although Islamist party, Justice and Construction, took just 17 of the 80 seats.  We have to remember that these “nations” are tribal societies.  Qaddafi’s tribe benefitted to the detriment of the other tribes, and this trend will continue, only now in reverse.  Furthermore, the Islamists will be the ones to start the public demonstrations to topple any government that is weakened by any national economic downturn because everything in Libya is heavily subsidized – “fuel, rice, flour and sugar are all subsidized; in the case of fuel the subsidy reaches 25 per cent of the cost.”  And has been so for years. 

So for the west there are two questions.  What kind of state will emerge, since there is no functioning state at all currently, and will what emerges become violent against the west?

As for Egypt, which has now become "too big to fail", is being lead by an alleged “moderate” Muslim who urged his people to  “nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred” for Jews.  Claiming that Jews are“bloodsuckers who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs.”   Then goes on to say that it is only a  “controversy because the American media was controlled by Jews.”  Yet none of that seems to bother America's “leadership" since the U.S.  is going to continue to fund the Egyptian military to the tune of  “$1.5 billion or so U.S. aid, most of it military, which has gone to Egypt annually since 1979’, including four F-16’s.  And why; because “Egypt is the colossus of the Arab world, and it would be irrational and unwise for the U.S. to simply let it become a rogue state, or to collapse, as a failed state.  And so the U.S. money spigot must be kept consistently open, if not cracked a bit wider”. 

Did they say they feared Egypt would collapse into a failed state?  Someone is delusional.  It already is a failed state because they can’t survive without charity.  Furthermore, “President Morsi is an Islamist, and his Muslim Brotherhood Party is an Islamist party.  They run a regime that is un-democratic, anti-human rights, anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Christian".  It is a failed state both economically and morally.   

And the line I keep hearing is that “no one could have foreseen this”.  Strange! I don’t know anyone personally who couldn’t foresee the consequences of the fall of Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and what is happening in Syria.   

This so-called Arab Spring is what "President Barack Obama called "a historic opportunity" for the United States "to pursue the world as it should be", and "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed confidence that the transformations would allow Washington to advance "security, stability, peace, and democracy" in the Middle East", and the Republicans claimed the Arab Spring --"unleashed democratic movements leading to the overthrow of dictators who have been menaces to global security for decades."

Amazing!  I often wonder if these people have ever read a history book?