The Dry Arab Spring and the Lost Left

[Pete]

The Dry Arab Spring and the Lost Left

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2011...lost-left.html

For all you still wondering "How could this have happened" about the elections in Egypt.

"All it takes to understand why the Arab Spring was doomed to turn into an Islamic Winter is that Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa were being asked to choose between a Socialist left and an Islamic right. The left has consistently lost open elections in Europe and America, it lost the battle of ideas in Russia and China, and unsurprisingly it also lost the Arab Spring........."

And interesting take on "Left" vs "Right".

[Richard]

Arab Spring - world's most expensive and least effective cleansing agent.

Richard

[DevilSide]

Thank you for posting this, I think I have my answers.

[scooter]

"Democracy does not mean freedom, it means the power to choose."

An insightful comment. In The Soviet-Afghan War, by the Soviet General Staff, the editor discusses how the Soviet army never truly understood their opponents because they could only view the conflict through a Marxist prism, where are all revolutions are Communist revolts. That meant the Mujahideen must be western backed counter-revolutionaries, and not a popular movement. They were unable to take off the ideological blinders and see the world as it was.

Democracy and free elections are not a magic panacea that will fix all problems, and in the Middle East they are likely to make things much worse. We've helped replace tyrants with Islamists (Egypt) and anarchy (Lybia). I'm sure if we wade into Syria that we'll do much, much better.....