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| Arabia |
| The "Arab Spring" is happening now |
| 2008-04-14 |
| Abe Greenwald, Pajamas Media Around this time of year in 2005, the media toyed with a catch phrase to describe the budding signs of democratic reform in states throughout the Middle East. They called it the “Arab Spring,” but it was an unprecedented time for America too. Hawks were downright chipper, aloft in “I told you so” heaven. Liberals were contrite. None of it lasted. Not the democracy, not the hawk happiness, and not the liberal contrition. In the first category, the setbacks have been numerous and horrifying. As for hawks and liberals, they’ve both spent increasingly less time arguing about Arab democracy and more time arguing about military viability. It’s now assumed by many that the best we can hope for after the heavy loss of blood and treasure is a lessening of the carnage and a staggered exit from the region, politics be damned. This will soon change. . . . . . . To paraphrase Talleyrand, the Arab Spring of 2005 was at once too weak and too strong. It’s now obvious that back then we found evidence for political reform in what proved to be either superficial gestures of democracy or frustrated bursts of the real thing. But today we witness a slow-moving, organic galvanization of the democratic spirit in the Muslim world. We just have to know where to look. In Iraq today there’s more than a day’s worth of purple fingers to demonstrate citizens’ commitment to statehood and consensual government. It’s been over a year since Sunni Awakening groups first took up arms against Sunni terrorists in Anbar, and the intra-sectarian battle has led to nothing less than the viability of a legitimate Iraqi state. The relative calm allowed the business of government to move forward, and in February the Iraqi Parliament passed three laws vital to the survival of a federalist Iraq: the 2008 budget, an amnesty for many prisoners, and, most crucially, a law outlining provincial powers. Recently, Iraq has seen fighting in Basra and elsewhere, but properly understood this is also compelling evidence of the Maliki government’s commitment to a pluralistic state. The Shiite Maliki’s willingness to wage war on Shiite militias in the interest of nationhood demonstrates that the country is not the crude sectarian powderkeg many detractors describe. Additionally, a March 4 article in no less an anti-war bastion than the New York Times details how young Iraqis rejected Islamic extremism in favor of a secular approach to law and order and government. This wholesale denouncement radicalism by the upcoming generation is as spring-like as one could dare hope for. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #4 So I think the moment for the reverse domino effect has passed, sadly. Oh, agreed. Then again, the US has never had the patience, or the consensus. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-04-14 16:58 |
| #3 You got my vote McZoid. |
| Posted by: jds 2008-04-14 12:25 |
| #2 Abd-allah, slave to allah. That is the defining aspect of a Muslim's wretched life. To that mortal enemy, freedom means: rebellion against their nominal deity. Communism, Fascism, Ultramontain Catholicism, Militarism, was shaken by fanatic believers; Islamic dictatorship is like breathing to those savages. Repatriate sovereignty over OUR oil properties in the Middle East, and send the locals back to their vulgar desert existence. That is their fate. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-04-14 12:01 |
| #1 I dunno, at best it looks more to me like an Iraqi spring than anything more general. Dont get me wrong, if we get an Iraqi spring, that will be very good, and I for one wont attack people who call it victory. But I think the bloodshed has reduced the appeal of Iraq as a model elswhere in the region, and also I think the region outside Iraq wasnt as ripe for democracy as some of us thought in 2002. So I think the moment for the reverse domino effect has passed, sadly. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-04-14 09:47 |