Articles Index So Much for Middle East Democracy
Monday, 24 October 2011 06:19
Has anything good come out of the Arab Spring and its revolutions in Tunisia, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Libya?
This could certainly be the shortest article I have ever written. The title alone could be the whole article.
Now that Qaddafi is dead what will be next for Libya? No doubt Libya will follow the path of other countries that have been down this road.
After Mubarak of Egypt was ousted the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) stepped in. Initially it was repeatedly claimed that the MB had nothing to do with the uprising in Egypt. We were told that it came from the “people” and they wanted freedom and democracy.
After it was obvious that MB was indeed pulling the strings of the uprisings, we were told from our own US Government, in the person of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, that the MB was “mostly secular”.
Almost immediately following the ouster of Hosni Mubarak it seemed that the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt followed him right out the door. Yes, once again, Israel was the “enemy”,
A senior Foreign Ministry official said a few senior Egyptian officials have uttered harsh statements in the past two weeks and even called Israel "the enemy." Egyptian Finance Minister Samir Radwan, for example, referring to the possibility of Israeli investments in Egypt, said Egypt did not need investments from "the enemy."
Later, after the MB announced that they would be running in the upcoming elections in Egypt with the newly unveiled “Freedom and Justice Party.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated the U.S. 'would welcome' dialogue with Muslim Brotherhood,
"We believe, given the changing political landscape in Egypt, that it is in the interests of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to nonviolence, that intend to compete for the parliament and the presidency," she told reporters in Budapest, Hungary. "And we welcome, therefore, dialogue with those Muslim Brotherhood members who wish to talk with us."
On August 18, a terrorist attack in southern Israel killed 8 people. The weapons used by the terrorists in that attack were traced back to Libya by way of Egypt,
IDF sources said that since Egyptians toppled President Hosni Mubarak’s regime in February, the number of warnings about terror attacks from Sinai has doubled. Arms smuggling into Gaza from Sinai has also surged since Mubarak’s fall. Most of the weapons come from Iran via Sudan, but more recently, arms taken from Libyan army depots left unguarded due to that country’s civil war have also arrived.
According to recent reports, with Qaddafi dead there is now the question of all the weapons that he (as well as the rebels) had stockpiled,
"We are doing our best to facilitate the securing of chemical weapon stocks, of nuclear material, of [shoulder-launched rockets] and of other ammunition," U.N. envoy to Libya Ian Martin said. Prior to the outbreak of the popular uprising in February, Libya was understood to possess approximately 9 metric tons of mustard blister agent, a larger amount of chemical weapon precursor material and a substantial cache of raw uranium.
The same report explains,
"Although the chemical weapons and nuclear material appear to be secure, there is very serious concern that a lot of other weaponry has gone missing and may have already crossed borders," Martin said. "So we are trying to assist efforts to address that within Libya."
There’s a warm and fuzzy thought, chemical weapons, nuclear material, 9 metric tons of mustard blister agent, a larger amount of chemical weapon precursor material and a substantial cache of raw uranium.
Where is all this going to end up, Israel or here in the U.S. through our southern borders?
The shoulder-launched rockets number more than 20,000. Each is capable of bringing down not just military aircraft but civilian aircraft as well. We have already seen weapons smuggled from Libya through Egypt and used against civilians in Israel. Do we really need to guess where some of these rockets may be headed or what an organization such as Hamas would do with them?
And what about our aircraft here in the U.S.? Need I mention our southern border again?
Getting back to “democracy” and Libya, a recent report in the Washington Times has already explained where the “new” Libya may be headed,
Qatar’s support for a former jihadist leader who is now the top rebel commander in Tripoli, Libya, is causing unease among Libyan rebels who worry that the revolution that ended Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s four-decade rule is being hijacked by Islamists.
Rebel sources say that Qatar has provided shipments of weapons to Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the rebels’ top military commander in Tripoli. He founded the now-disbanded Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which was listed as a foreign terrorist group by the State Department.
When will the U.S., the U.N., and the West as a whole realize that excluding Israel, those in the Middle East no more want democracy than they would want Judaism or Christianity forced upon them?
Now the latest is that Obama has announced that the U.S. will be withdrawing from Iraq,
"After nearly 9 years, America's war in Iraq will be over," said Mr. Obama.
He said the last American troops will depart the country by January 1 "with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops."
We might as well just open the borders between Iraq and Iran and give Iran the keys since a final date of withdrawal has been given.
Just when you thought you had seen it all with the “Arab Spring”, the Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud has died. In all probability this will have little to no effect on Saudi Arabia, but the timing is interesting to say the least.
During a speech on the death of Qaddafi, President Obama stated,
“Today, we can definitively say that the Qaddafi regime has come to an end. The last major regime strongholds have fallen. The new government is consolidating the control over the country. And one of the world’s longest-serving dictators is no more.”
Mr. President, to say “The last major regime strongholds have fallen” makes me have to ask, have you not yet heard of President Assad and Syria?
Yes, keep your eyes on that one, next up on the agenda… Syria. And by the way, they don’t want democracy there either.
Yep...exactly