@revelette,
revelette wrote:
boy, finn, I don't think I have read such a gloom and doom and somewhat offensive in language post from you before. What gives?
When I look at the images of all the people in Egypt exercising rights we take for granted, I just see it as a positive thing regardless if they have a plan for what is next or not. Apparently, all those people know what they had and they don't want it anymore. When we first started our country I doubt the "founding fathers" had all the answers either.
Offensive language?
Do you mean the use of "wogs?" That was intended as parody, and not meant to offend.
Gloom and Doom?
I thought I just proved that Westerners don't see Egyptians as "the others," or if they do, it's a good thing.
Actually I would love to believe that the unrest across North Africa and the Middle East is a positive trend; that it signals the end of autocratic regimes and the birth of democracy in, at least, a few of these countries.
I just don't, and I think there is far greater reason to be pessimistic than optimistic.
In Egypt, in particular, Mubarak has spent 30 years purging his country of any forces for moderate, democratic reform. Not only did this help to secure his power internally, it maintained the
lesser of two evils choice for the US: Mubarak or Islamists.
I don't see how a fledgling democratic leader will be able to rise to power without somehow forming a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood and I simply do not believe that the latter will be content without full power and the imposition of Sharia Law.
In the end I see continued autocratic rule in all of these states...either by military backed strongmen or by Islamists, and a greater chance of war with Israel and/or among these states.
I certainly hope I am proven wrong.
