Opinions

“The Sept. 11 attacks were in part inspired by a radical ideology and belief that the fundamental problems plaguing Arab and Muslim people could be resolved by attacking foreign powers, those propping up dictators, promoting Western culture, oppressing Islam and corrupting civilization.

 The Arab Spring has turned that formula inside out, negating premises fundamental to a world that bore and nurtured Osama bin Laden. Arab majorities, still harboring resentment toward Western policies, are first looking inward to promote change, blaming their own leaders for decades of political, economic and cultural decline. There is a degree of societal introspection taking place, one that was pointless in totalitarian societies that discouraged, and often punished, civic participation.”

Egypt. They also just discovered some new pyramids from space.

(Source: BBC)

“The widespread indignity felt by Egyptians who see themselves as the jailers of Gaza on behalf of Israel and Washington will give way to a realistic policy by which Egyptians use their ties with Israel to push the latter to adopt a more law-abiding stance towards the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese,” Rami G. Khouri, an analyst at the American University of Beirut, wrote for YaleGlobal online. “Egypt will keep peace with Israel, but raise the temperature on issues of profound national concern to Arabs.”

This is interesting. Far too many people are far too eager to blame Obama for everything that goes wrong in the world. Diplomacy is a delicate art and the smallest misstep can have the most disastrous repercussions. Pragmatism is often distasteful, but it exists for a reason. It is most likely to bring real benefits to the people involved. Idealism is important, but it often cannot withstand the vicissitudes of the real world.

It’s also naive to assume that any administration is a monolithic entity with a single mindset. I think Obama acted appropriately (without meddling too much with Egyptian sovereignty) and an Egyptian dictator has been toppled by the Egyptian people.

“In 40 years of writing about the Middle East, I have never seen anything like what is happening in Tahrir Square. In a region where the truth and truth-tellers have so long been smothered under the crushing weight of oil, autocracy and religious obscurantism, suddenly the Arab world has a truly free space — a space that Egyptians themselves, not a foreign army, have liberated — and the truth is now gushing out of here like a torrent from a broken hydrant.”