Arab spring uprises Tunisia/Egypt/Libya/Syria

[Badasp5.0]

The Arab spring didn't work out so well as it first seemed to do so.

Libya, Tunisia, Egypt are still semi-warzones. And Syria, well..

Anyone who thought it would be a quick and easy transition to new stable governments is living in a fantasy world.

 

[Liquid]

Arguably the spring is over. It is simply a transition from a single person authoritarian regime to a collective, military authoritarian regime.

 

[Dennisch]

With the occasional suicide bomber here and there.

 

[Dotini]

Arguably the spring is over. It is simply a transition from a single person authoritarian regime to a collective, military authoritarian regime.

I would agree, and add that whatever happens to any of these Arab Spring nations and their peoples is ultimately unknown, unpredictable, and unimportant.

The importance is the satisfaction of our moral imperative, which needs be instant.

 

[Rage Racer]

It's not over. I think it's just a calm before another storm.
Or it is actually going, but the world's eyes are on the Olympics right now.

 

[Liquid]

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't that guy who replaced Mubarak in Egypt (his name escapes me at this time, the one on trial) the first ever democratically elected leader of the Egyptian state?

Loose term of the adverb democratically I know, but it still says something that the people spoke but because their candidate was aligned with a party which did not conform to the military, the military steps in and takes over.

However I don't know enough about the Muslim Brotherhood to know whether this man was a fit candidate for office. Lest we forget this is not without precedence; the NSDAP was elected to office in Germany under relatively democratic circumstances.

 

[Rage Racer]

(his name escapes me at this time, the one on trial)

Mohammed Morsi.

Well, the military ruling the country is still better than islamists. At least for tourism, because the tourist areas are calm. For now. But later, we may possibly have a civil war a lot bigger than the Libyan or even Syrian (keeping in mind the bigger population and its density).

 

[Dennisch]

Egypt now has Sisi. Can't go wrong with a man in charge called Sisi.

 

[Liquid]

Egypt now has Sisi. Can't go wrong with a man in charge called Sisi.

In Spain he'd just be a sycophantic yes man.

 

[Dotini]

Mohammed Morsi.

Well, the military ruling the country is still better than islamists. At least for tourism, because the tourist areas are calm. For now. But later, we may possibly have a civil war a lot bigger than the Libyan or even Syrian (keeping in mind the bigger population and its density).

Tourist bus bombing kills 4, wounds 15 South Korean Christian tourists, dateline yesterday.
http://news.antiwar.com/2014/02/16/tourist-bus-bombing-kills-four-along-sinai-israel-border/

The Egyptians had a fling with democracy, satisfying our moral imperative for the moment. They threw over the military dictator Mubarek, replacing him with the democratically elected Islamist, brother Morsi. In a fit of buyer's remorse, they had a 2nd epiphany, another quick revolution, and went straight back to a military dictator, and to hell with democracy. The Egyptians are a deeply disturbed and confused people.

 

[Dotini]

delete

 

[Rage Racer]

Tourist bus bombing kills 4, wounds 15 South Korean Christian tourists, dateline yesterday.
http://news.antiwar.com/2014/02/16/tourist-bus-bombing-kills-four-along-sinai-israel-border/

The Egyptians had a fling with democracy, satisfying our moral imperative for the moment. They threw over the military dictator Mubarek, replacing him with the democratically elected Islamist, brother Morsi. In a fit of buyer's remorse, they had a 2nd epiphany, another quick revolution, and went straight back to a military dictator, and to hell with democracy. The Egyptians are a deeply disturbed and confused people.

That wouldn't be better if the Islamists were still in power. Do you know that they were planning to destroy the pyramids as "symbols of paganism"? And they probably could do something bad to the tourists who don't obey the Sharia laws?
And yeah, I'd never call a Sharia-based constitution "democratic".

Egypt now has Sisi. Can't go wrong with a man in charge called Sisi.

Adly Mansour is now the acting president, isn't he?

 

[Dotini]

Egypt militants warn tourists to leave by Feb 20, or face attack.
http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-militan...DMTBscmh1bTJtBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwM4BHNlYwNzcg--

 

[Blitz24]

Pushing for change just for the sake of change is the wrong idea. There needs to be almost an entire change in thought process in order for the Arab Spring to be deemed successful. Has Tunisia even recovered from it's Spring?

 

[Dotini]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/18/us-tunisia-kerry-idUSBREA1H0OB20140218
"While violence from Islamist militants is sporadic in Tunisia, which relies heavily on European tourism, militants have been using the chaos in neighboring Libya to get access to arms and training across the porous border.

Tunisian security forces have been battling militants from the banned Islamist movement Ansar al-Sharia, one of the radical groups to emerge after Ben Ali's fall.

Ansar al-Sharia was blamed for inciting the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tunis on September 14, 2012 and has since been listed by Washington as a terrorist organization, with ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb."

 

[Rage Racer]

Now, it's time for the govermental armies to seize control... with heavy armor.

 

[Dotini]

Now, it's time for the govermental armies to seize control... with heavy armor.

I'm not so sure that we haven't already arrived at the perfect solution: keeping our enemies permanently at each others' throats while we take their oil. Sun Tzu and Machiavelli would nod approvingly from the shadows.

 

[Dennisch]

Maybe this should be renamed the General uprising thread and add the Ukraine.
Today it turned really ugly there, 18 deaths so far.

 

[Dotini]

Maybe this should be renamed the General uprising thread and add the Ukraine.
Today it turned really ugly there, 18 deaths so far.

Here's a good essay which helps to understand what's going on in Ukraine, similar to the other "uprisings". Originally printed in The Independent.
http://www.unz.com/pcockburn/are-pr...tal-despot-or-merely-bad-losers-at-the-polls/

 

[Rage Racer]

I have a friend in Kiev. He says, the city is like a war zone. All entrances to the city are blocked, the subway doesn't work, some airports are closed, the Internet is switched off in some places. There are rumors about police hiring some gangsters to attack the Maidan rebels (and those 4 dead are their victims). The cops are permitted to use lethal force (rumors about combat shotgun shells and even AK's being used).

Do you know why has it begun? I think there should be another thread.

Edit: 26 victims reported by now.

 

[Dotini]

Egypt is advancing another step in its revolution. You will recall last summer they popularly removed the president they had elected less than year before. Now the interim president installed by Field Marshal al-Sisi has resigned, as has his cabinet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26323638#

 

[Dotini]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/01/us-syria-crisis-prophecy-insight-idUSBREA3013420140401
Apocalyptic prophecies drive both sides to Syrian battle for end of time

 

[Dennisch]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/01/us-syria-crisis-prophecy-insight-idUSBREA3013420140401
Apocalyptic prophecies drive both sides to Syrian battle for end of time

Christianity 2.0

 

[Dotini]

Perhaps even more interesting to realists is a new essay from Seymour Hersch, possibly the best connected, most experienced and credible investigative reporter that ever lived on Earth.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/2014/04/06/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line

 

[BobK]

One of the safest "prophesies" one could make is that there will be unrest and war in the Middle East.

 

[Dotini]

One of the safest "prophesies" one could make is that there will be unrest and war in the Middle East.

Now, at this present time, there does indeed appear to be a real, true, prophesied war-to-the-death between Sunni and Shia in the Mideast. The moralistic, human-rights-and-democracy-loving idealist in me wants to ask what can be done to allay such an apocalypse. However, the cynical realist in me wants to quietly step to one side while our foolish enemies slit each others' throats til they're all knee deep dead in their own blood. Decisions, decisions.

 

[Dotini]

A few weeks ago the US was forced to abandon its embassy in Tripoli when the nearby airport was attacked by rival militias.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/26/world/africa/libya-us-embassy-evacuation/

Now, Tripoli has been attacked by UAE aircraft from a base in Egypt. It seems Turkey and Qatar are supporting the Sunni Islamic militias in Libya, while Sunni authoritarian Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt are opposing them, at first by proxy militias, and now by direct intervention.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/w...cretly-carried-out-libya-airstrikes.html?_r=0

This appears to be a battle of "all against all", an almost perfect recipe for chaos, economic and social destruction, an almost perfect hell for Muslims and Arabs to dwell in. Military geniuses of the past such as Sun Tzu and Julius Caesar championed a strategy of "divide and conquer" against enemies. The strategy of pitting Muslim vs Muslim, Arab versus Arab, is the perfect strategy when the west is recovering its military and economic strength from recent expensive wars.

 

[VolkswagenX]

Thank you IS, for giving me another chance at invading Syria.

Yours truly,

Barry O.

 

[Dotini]

http://freebeacon.com/national-secu...ise-fears-of-suicide-airliner-attacks-on-911/
Islamist militias in Libya took control of nearly a dozen commercial jetliners last month, and western intelligence agencies recently issued a warning that the jets could be used in terrorist attacks across North Africa.

Intelligence reports of the stolen jetliners were distributed within the U.S. government over the past two weeks and included a warning that one or more of the aircraft could be used in an attack later this month on the date marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, said U.S. officials familiar with the reports.

 

[VolkswagenX]

Kerry Claims U.S. Has Found a Moderate Syrian Rebel
BY ANDY BOROWITZ

• 
  CREDITPHOTOGRAPH BY ALEX WONG/GETTY
  The Borowitz Report)—In what Secretary of State John Kerry described as a significant foreign-policy coup, the U.S. claimed, on Tuesday, that it had successfully located a moderate Syrian rebel.
  
  Though Kerry did not elaborate on how the U.S. did so, he said that locating the rebel was “the culmination of a months-long effort.”
  
  
  
  The Secretary of State said that the Syrian had been appropriately vetted and was deemed “moderately rebellious.”
  
  
  “He definitely seems to be the sort of gentleman we can work with,” Kerry said, adding that several millions of dollars would be spent arming and training the rebel in the days and weeks ahead.
  
  Kerry said that the government’s successful identification of a moderate Syrian rebel was a major victory that should silence critics of the U.S.’s strategy in Iraq and Syria.
  
  “To all of the naysayers who have been arguing that there are no moderate Syrian rebels, I am here today to say that we have found one,” Kerry said. “And if we have found one, that means that there must be others out there.”

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/kerry-claims-u-s-found-moderate-syrian-rebel
Lol