1. The upheavals of 2011 were provoked by the Bush administration’s overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq Bzzt! Wrong answer. None of the young people who made this year’s revolutions ever pointed to Iraq as an inspiration. The only time Iraq was even brought up in their tweets was as a negative example (“let’s not […]
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Yemen
2011 Revolutions and the End of Republican Monarchy
Egyptian reformer Saad Eddin Ibrahim observed in the late 1990s and 2000 that the Arab world was beginning to be characterized by a bizarre gryphon-like form of government, the republican monarchy. In a republic, power is supposed to be vested in the people, who are sovereign, and who can change out their leaders through elections. […]
Cole interview with Nobelist Tawakkul Karman
My interview on Arab feminism, youth activism, and revolution with Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman of Yemen is now up at YouTube. I asked her not only about high politics but about social issues such as the role of women in the revolution and the threat of religious radicalism. I asked each question twice […]
Democratic Developments in the Arab Upheavals
The Arab upheavals of 2011 have been very different from one another across countries, but have in common a language of parliamentary democracy as the ultimate ideal (albeit one that sounds more like the old West German Social Democratic Party ideal than like the Neoliberal parliamentary regimes of the US and its close allies). Democracy […]
Only Green Energy Can Save Yemen
No one gives any credence to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s pledge on Monday to step down in 90 days, since he’s made such commitments before and reneged on them. The Yemeni revolution shows no sign of subsiding, but it so far has not been strong enough to displace the president, who has ruled as […]
Tawakul Karman, Yemen mother of 3, among winners of Nobel Peace Prize
One of the three women awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year is Tawakul Karman, 32, a Yemeni activist and mother of 3. Aljazeera has an interview with her in English about how she carries on demanding democracy in Yemen in the face of threats to herself and her family. For videos of her leading […]
Panetta Slams Israeli Isolation; Is Israeli Policy Destabilizing US Allies?
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta , on a visit to Israel and Palestine before heading to Egypt, publicly upbraided the Likud government of Israel for having become isolated diplomatically in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring, and warned direly that brute military force would not be enough to provide for Israel’s […]
Al-Qaeda Brands Ahmadinejad a Conspiracy Theorist!
The al-Qaeda-linked magazine “Inspire” has reprimanded Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for indulging in “stupid” “conspiracy theories” because of his stance, repeated at the recent United Nations meeting, that 9/11 was a Bush administration inside job. When al-Qaeda accuses you of being a conspiracy theorist, you’re really a space cadet. Incidentally, a far rightwing Muslim fundamentalist […]
Arab Spring Roundup
A pro-Baath mob in Damascus attacked the convoy of US ambassador Robert Ford, pelting his and other vehicles with tomatoes and eggs. Ford has visited dissident cities as they protested the regime of President Bashar al-Asad, and been denounced by the government for interfering in Syrian politics. The regime has consistently attempted to paint the […]
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