What's going on with the "Arab Spring" everyone has been shouting about? Egypt got rid of their leader and handed everything over to the military but since then things have been pretty quite. No stories about new political parties vying to fill the void and no real confirmation on when the elections will happen. How about the economy and employment situation? Has any improvements been instituted yet?
Tunisia, who started the revolution ball rooling has also been quite. The job situation fueled the rebellion but there has been no word about any improvements or new policies implemented to meet the protesters damands. The only thing they have accomplished is getting rid of the old leader. Shouldn't we be hearing about the progress in implmenting new policies for employment and the economy?
Libya is in the middle of a full fledged civil war so I don't expect anyhting to change there until the country is totally destroyed and they have nothing left to fight over. France is getting the opportunity to test their weapon systems in a realtime environment while the US is trying to remain in the background except when an operation calls for the kind of skills the other members of NATO do not possess.
Syria is busy killing everyone protesting the government with support from Iran and no one is paying attention in the UN.
Bahrain had to get support from Saudi Arabia to put down the protests in that country but the conflict in Bahrain was the work of Iran. Iran is doing everything they can to destablize the country along the Sunni-Shia boundries. Fortunately it looks like the Bahrain government has things under control.
This whole "Arab Spring" has so far been nothing but a sloganeering and alot of wishful thinking. People are braying about the new middle east but frankly I don't see any improvements being suggested let alone enacted. It's easy to man the barricades and shout slogans while fireing AK-47s in the air. Before you depose a government you probably should have a plan on what you intend to do once the government collapses. As with anything it's the details that matter not the bluster.
Israel is doing what they always do and that is keeping a sharp eye on their boarders. When people tried to swarm Israels borders last week from Syria, Egypt, Gaza, and the West bank to protest the 1948 war where Israel kicked their asses and claimed the land gained after fighting a defensive war. The Arabs are still screaming that it's not fair and they basically want a do ever. As far as the Arab citizens go they actually believe they won the 73 war since all the Arab countries involved have never published anything but lies and propaganda to their citizens. Even their school text books claim they won the war and that Israel attacked them. This blatant type of indoctrination is at the root of all the current problems between Israel and the Arabs. The Arabs also want to ignore the fact that they attacked Israel in 1973 and lost even more land after Israel cleaned their clocks. They basically want the land they lost in 3 wars of aggression and they have not even acknowledged this fact let alone offer an apology. People have tried to say the most recent actions against Israel was a revolution along the lines of the others but none of the other countries going through the upheavals involved invading another country.
The US is being quite and pretty much neutral across the board waiting for the end game when they will approach the winners of these conflicts. Good strategy if you ask me.
Taking out Osama has also kept things interesting. The Pakistan ISI looks weak and ineffective because Osama was holed up across the street from their military academy for 5 years without them knowing. Of course the ISI could have known all along and chose not to reveal the fact but they certainly can't publicize this information to show the world they are not idiots. Pakistan was punked by the US and their military base was attacked over the weekend by the Taliban making the military look like incompetent boobs and this has raised the question on whether they can secure their nuclear weapons. Pakistan is also getting ready to lose the monetary support the US is handing out because of their mistakes. It's funny, Pakistan made a big deal of getting China to build a new deep water port thus sending the US a message that they have friends else where, however the Chinese government announced they had never been approached for this deal and they certainly have not entered into any agreement with Pakistan in this matter.
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