Before Egyptians had the chance to properly celebrate their tremendous victory and wake up to the first morning of a new Egypt, they were met with predictable concerns that Egypt is on the brink of an Islamist takeover. Western (particularly American) policymakers and pundits remain worried that Egypt’s largest Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, will hijack the inspirational revolution that brought an end to Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year tyranny, and will lead Egypt down the path of Iran-style theocracy.
By now, careful observers will know that these fears are unfounded on multiple levels. The protests were not led by the Muslim Brotherhood, which only joined them after they had been going on for days. The Brotherhood itself is not the bloodthirsty threat to liberty its enemies would have us believe. And the process of engaging in collective action may actually have deepened some of the internal fissures within the party’s leadership, making it unlikely to “dominate” Egypt’s future in any single, clear direction.
The Arabs are seeing their second wave of revolt against colonialism. The first wave of revolt started between the First World War and at the end of the Second World War. It involved the Great Arab Revolt, with British and French support, against Ottoman Turkey during the First World War and then Arab revolt against Britain, France, and Italy during and after the Second World War. [3]
During the formal period of colonialism, the authority of the colonial powers (Britain, France, and Italy) were politically visible. Today, the Arab World is under the "invisible authority" of the neo-colonial powers. These include the U.S., Britain, and France.
The modern-day neo-colonial powers maintain control over Arab countries through the supervision of their economies and the control of their political leaders, who serve neo-colonial interests as vassals. Thus, 2011 is not only the start of the second wave of Arab revolt against foreign rule via imposed dictators and corrupt regimes, but it is also part of a broader struggle against neo-colonialism.
Starting with Tunisia, revolts and protests have broken out across the Arab World. Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories, Mauritania, Sudan, and Egypt have all been electrified with activism. Added to this is the political tension in Lebanon, continued instability in Iraq under American-led foreign military occupation, building tensions in Bahrain, and the balkanization of Sudan.
At first glance the Arab World seems to be in turmoil, but there is much more than meets the eye.
Imagine how different things would be if the USA was not dependent upon Middle Eastern oil.
If we were energy-independent, it would be of little or no concern to us what happened over there. But instead, we drive around in our gas-hog SUV's and get indignant about the fact that "those people" had the audacity to build their countries on top of "our" oil.
Now you can't bring up Saudi Arabia without bringing up th 9/11 terrorists. If ever a country deserved to be invaded for terrorism I would have thought that would do it. Talk about double standards.
No more factually incorrect than to say Sadam Hussein was involved. I'm not saying any war was necessary, prudent, or wise (in fact I have never considered anything close to it). Simply that there was a double standard involved in selecting despots to topple.To be fair, Bin Laden was a wanted criminal in Saudi Arabia and Al-Queda has committed terrorist act there also. He has repeatedly called for the overthrow of the monarchy. It would be factually incorrect to state that the current leadership of Saudi Arabia was involved in 9-11.
At some point we as a nation are going to have to ask ourselves why these people are committing acts of terrorism against us. The problem with a purely military response is that we are making enemies faster than we can kill them. And until we can wean ourselves off of our addiction to their oil, they will continue to have us by the short hairs.