The Syrian Time Bomb

A fairly reasonable assessment of the implications of what is happening in Syria.

By Patrick Seale.

Turkey's increasing role as a power player in the ME

I am all for it.

Turkey is a muslim country and a successful democracy. It has a lot to lose if the whole region will play out like Bahrain and maybe Syria where SA is sowing and encouraging sectarian strife with the benediction of USrael.

At the same time, Arab countries veering for change toward more democracy and reform can learn a lot and better from Turkey.

UPDATE: Turkish PM urges Syria reforms.

Saudi Arabia and the counter revolution in the middle east: Part 1

I am no longer optimistic about what is happening in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia, who corrupted most Arab regimes, gave us Bin Laden and Sept. 11th, is leading the counter revolution in the Arab world through a rapprochement with the UAE.

In Bahrain, Lybia, and Yemen, the voices of democratic change have been and are being silenced. And in Syria, where a regime change and more democracy is necessary, things are turning very nasty, thanks to Qatar based sunni Imam Al-Qaradawi. If Saudi Arabia perseveres along this line, with the ascent of the US and the west, it will be the end of democratic change in the Arab world and the lebanonisation of the whole region.

Opposition forces and democratic forces in the Arab world need to be aware of the dangers ahead. The biggest of them being the resistance of Saudi Arabia to change and the willingness of the kingdom to adopt a Samson strategy in the face of change threatening their own rule...

The Arab Spring Is Being Hijacked

I know that this title seems to be in contradiction with the other below but even if I believe that in the long term the Arab spring will endure, because the West and USrael have shown their hypocrisy to the Arab public more then ever (they are not even trying to hide it), they are trying to hijack the Arab spring and they seem to be succeeding in the short run.

The secretary of the Arab league, Amr Moussa, who voted for the no-fly zone over Lybia to 'protect civilians', has not called for such a no-fly Zone over Bahrain where peaceful protesters are being killed by the Bahraïni ruling family's and Saudi armies. Also, this fellow, who seems to be preparing for the presidential candidacy of Egypt, wants to have it both ways. He criticized the allied bombings of Lybia after having approved it.

The Arab Spring Is Brighter Than Ever

Brian Whitaker, The Guardian.

Arabs don't talk much about democracy as such, and they tend to be cynical about elections. They do talk increasingly about "freedom", though what they mean by it is not quite what Bush meant. They want freedom from corruption and political cronyism, and the freedom to make their own choices – an end to repression and government attempts to control the minutiae of people's lives.

Democracy may be one way of working towards that but it is rarely seen as a goal in itself, and while regime change is certainly an important part of the revolt, its younger activists (at least) have their eyes set on changing whole systems, not just the political leaders.

The wave of insurrection that broke out in December was sudden but not totally unexpected; the signs of discontent were there for anyone to see and they had been developing for more than a decade.

The process actually began in the 1990s when the arrival of satellite television, and especially al-Jazeera, opened the first serious cracks in regimes' monopoly on ideas and information – and that accelerated later with the explosion of the internet.