Democracy Breaks Out

For most of the Bush/Republican regime, the US tried to spread Democracy from the barrel of a gun.  While Iraq is winding down, the Obama administration has done no better in Afghanistan.  Perhaps we are using the wrong tactics, since a small dose of truth, courtesy of Julian Assange, and access to social networks has overthrown the Tunisian government and spurred massive protests in other locations, especially Egypt.  The Obama administration has made the right move by supporting protesters’ rights, but the US has so ignored reform in our Arab client states, that we have no contingency on how to relate to a democratic uprising in the middle east.

The streets of the capital were engulfed with tear gas Chants of "Down with the system", "Down with Mubarak" and "From revolution to victory" echoed throughout the city.

"I am here today because I cannot afford to feed my family," said Maha Egadi, 50, a chartered accountant, as his nose streamed from the effects of tear gas. "We have come because we want our freedom, and we want to stop corruption and theft by the government."

By 2 PM, small knots of people were congregating in the streets urging onlookers to join them.

"Where are the Egyptian people?" they shouted. "Come and protest with us."

At first the teams of black clad riot police from the feared Central Security Forces tried to intimidate the crowds, firing tear gas into narrow alleyways, forcing people to flee.

"Has anybody got any onions?" asked one man, referring to a widely held belief that they could stop the effects of tear gas.

But as the crowds grew in size, the police seemed to hold back, forming lines across the streets rather than sending in snatch squads.

One senior officer told The Telegraph that they would only open fire with live rounds "if things went absolutely crazy, and then only on orders from the very top".

Crowds who gathered around Tahrir Square in Cairo city centre – the scene of protests earlier in the week – also staged mass prayer sessions in the streets, kneeling down in supplication for an end to US-backed regime of Hosni Mubark, Egypt’s long serving president.

Like earlier protests, today’s were coordinated via social networking sites, with activists telling people to gather for Friday prayers at mosques across the city before heading for their nearest public squares to demonstrate.

In an apparent effort by the government to stop the protests, mobile phone and internet services were cut from early on Friday morning, but the simplicity of the instructions meant it was impossible to stop the gatherings going ahead… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Telegraph>

I understand that Mubarak has called out the army, but that soldiers have not fired on the demonstrators.  Lets look at the broader picture.

It’s a sign of the times that some Arab journalists attending the gathering of international power brokers here were spending their free time scanning Twitter messages about political protests back home. It’s that kind of moment in the Arab world, when people are nervous about anything that is connected to the status quo.

The unrest that toppled a government in Tunisia has spread across the region, with big street demonstrations in Egypt, Jordan and Yemen. It’s a movement that appears leaderless – more like a "flash mob." But it shares a common sensibility – the rising expectations of a younger generation that sees global change on the Internet and has momentarily lost its fear of corrupt, autocratic leaders.

"I think it’s overdue," says Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who runs the Alwaleed 24-hour news channel, speaking about the street protests in Egypt. "There were reasons for people to get angry 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and now it is here." Indeed, he says, "the Arab world has been seeking renaissance for the last hundred years" but has stalled the last several generations, caught between fear of authoritarian regimes and anger at their corruption.

It’s an easy revolution to like, and U.S. officials have wisely endorsed the protesters’ goals of openness and reform. But in truth, there’s little America could do to bolster the octogenarian Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, even if it wanted to. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may endorse reform, as she did Wednesday, but this is a post-American revolution, encouraged in part by a recognition of the limits of U.S. power.

The unrest follows a series of American failures in the region. President Obama promised change. But he couldn’t bring Israel and the Palestinians to a peace agreement, and he couldn’t counter Hezbollah in Lebanon or its patron, Iran. America is not the stopper in the bottle anymore, and the Arab man in the street knows it.

U.S. officials are encouraged by the fact that the protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries seem autonomous of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamic groups. But that may be false comfort; this process is still in its early stages.

History teaches that revolutions are always attractive in their infancy, when freedom is in the air and the rebellion seems spontaneous. But from the French and Russian revolutions to the Iranian uprising of 1979, the idealistic but disorganized street protesters usually give way to a manipulative revolutionary elite – the "Revolutionary Guard," as the Iranians like to call them… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

The best thing the US can do is throw more support behind the demonstrators, to maintain influence and act as a foil against extremists gaining control.  Although I have heard no specific Republican responses to this crisis, their position is clear.  The Chamber of Commerce is supporting the autocrats.  Can you imagine where we would be with this had McCain/Palin won?  Ugh!