Oh hello, I have not posted here in a good while, and the spark has returned in earnest to my heart now that I have free time. For the past -- two or three years, has it been? -- we have heard stories of inspiring, insightful revolutions of what the West connects as liberalism and democratic progress in a number of Middle Eastern and Northern African states. Source: Wikipedia The media has delightfully given an almost brightly cinematic name to this mass public upheaval of opinion. We know it as the Arab Spring. Traced back to December 2010, when Tunisian protests sparked in response to Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in response to maltreatment, this wave of revolutionary fervour and the everyday people wishing to have their civil rights further respected began to take hold across much of this region. In the past three years, we have had political reformations, overthrown governments, consistent protests, and two violent civil wars, one of which is still ongoing. Where does this leave us? The Hotspots It can be argued that out of the many conflicts going on at the moment, the situations in Egypt and Syria are perhaps the most tense. Egypt The public, with the help of the armed forces, have overthrown two leaders and governments thus far. Mubarak's authoritarian collapse felt generally welcomed by many at that time, but the overthrow of Morsi, who was democratically elected, has prompted internal strife and constant conflict between Muslim Brotherhood supporters and a few more secular or moderate groups. Syria A civil war has been raging since 2011. Much less clean cut than the Libyan Civil War, despite beginning on similar foundations, the Syrian Civil War is an extremely messy, complicated affair which has racked up a death count of around 100,000 individuals by June 2013, and there is little sign of the war ceasing peacefully or decisively any time soon. The government of Bashar Al-Assad has some support from powers such as Russia and Iran, while the opposition forces are getting direct support from Saudi Arabia and Qatar with reluctant support from countries such as France and the United States, but not necessarily to the same extent. In contrast to the Libyan Civil War, the opposition is much more heavily fragmented and disorganized, and this, along with Assad's methods of keeping support, have led to the government slowly routing out existing opposition. Timeless historical constructs and entire city sections have been destroyed, many lives lost, and there are even possibilities of chemical weapons usage. Furthermore, the conflict exhibits a sectarianism that underlies not simply this conflict but the sparks of other conflicts around the Middle East. Locations of Note Libya In 2011, a majority of the Libyan people overthrew Muammar Gadhafi, long time head of the nation, restoring power back in the hands of the public, generally. Although things are shaping up, tension still exists within the nation, mostly internally between militia powers. Benghazi is an especially notable hotspot, and was the site of the infamous attack on the US consolate. Tunisia Tunisia's revolution, of sorts, was much more lax compared to that of Libya and Syria, but that did not change the sentiment behind it; Tunisia was, for all respects and purposes, the place where everything began. Although power has been redistributed to the elected party Ennahda, a moderate party with an Islam incline, a few recent concerns involve the assassination of opposition figureheads, and a few calls for the toppling of this government as well. Yemen Yemen has, unfortunately, been not in the best shape for a while. Although the government was ousted and elections took place, the country is still in a bit of an unstable, precarious shape. Even recently there has been an Al-Qaeda scare that has led the United States and a few other nations to be further on guard in the country, closing embassies. Iraq An enormous increase in bombings has plagued Iraq in the past few months of 2013 alone. Although the country was doing a bit better for itself in the past few years thankfully, these recent attacks are increasingly sectarian-linked and do not appear to be stopping anytime soon, unfortunately. Iraq may very well be on its way to becoming a hotspot of its own. Sources: Al Jazeera, BBC Although many of these were generally simplifications which is why those links exist, what does KHV think? Do you have hopes that the tumultuous region will pull together any time soon? Are these simply the throes of transition that every country in transition goes through? What are your outlooks on this hot region of affairs in the world?
Nah, I don't think the situation there will improve anytime soon. Syria used chemical weapons, and the response from the West has been lukewarm at best (but not without reason. Solving these conflicts internally, every country for itself, is not an option I'd place big money on either. Successful protesters in one country still seem to inspire protests in another, and any government intervening drastically just pisses its people off even more. This isn't even going into neighboring countries or organisations that actually benefit from a lengthy conflict or the direction it is taking.
I think its going to get a lot worse before it even begins to get better, the more developed world are fighting amongst themselves about taking action. Alot of people will say 'leave them too it they will sort it out between them' but its ridiculous the amount of innocent lives that are being taken by their own government who are supposed to protect them, there's no justification to anything that happening at the moment.
