by Michael J. Totten
Tunisia is mellow, even pacifist, compared with Algeria. The army is smaller than Egypt's, and it is not--or at least it has not been--a political player. So I don't expect a full-blown Algerian-style insurgency or an Egyptian-style military coup. Nor is a Tiananmen Square-style massacre in the cards. Tunisia is not a police state, and Ennahda admits it's afraid of the army.
But tensions are rising, the situation is volatile, the country is more dangerous now than even a week ago, and the region is always surprising. Keep an eye out because even the "moderate" Islamists empowered by the Arab Spring are back on their heels. They thought they owned the future, but they do not. |