SNIPPETS #36: 'The Arab Spring is Over'

SNIPPETS #36 

SNIPPETS is published in the National Interest. No action should be implied or inferred. The opinions expressed remain those of the author entirely.

'The Arab Spring Is Over'

by Benn Yogarni 

BBC World Service News 4am Tuisday 29th April 2014:
Reporter Orla Guiren:

"Egyptian judge took only hours to sentence to death Md. Badhi(?) Muslim Brotherhood leader and 683 followers for ‘riot’ last August 2013 in which a policeman was killed. One of the accused was a wheelchair-bound cripple. His sentence, and that of 500 others, was commuted to life in prison. The judge also confirmed 37 death sentences passed last month for the same riot. US President Obama has expressed ‘regret’ ". [emphasis ours]

HOPES DASHED: Those who in 2008 mistakenly thought electing a half-African as the ‘free world's’ ruler would mean ‘change’ have been proven tragically wrong. The masses were deluded into believing the many 'uprisings' in Arab countries after Februa 2011 would lead to democracy and prosperity are now much wiser. So what became of the much vaulted ‘Arab Spring’?

PRAGUE SPRING: Let’s first look at what we mean by ‘Arab Spring’. In 1968 the Czechs rose against the oppressive might of the USSR. Their masses took to the streets to demand an end to Soviet rule, a break from the Warsaw Pact* and more ‘human rights’. In Februa 2011 a stall holder in Tunisia set fire to himself claiming harassment by police. The cry was taken up across North Africa. What appeared to be ‘spontaneous’ protests erupted in several countries. Within six weeks the gerontocratic, socialist government of Tunisia was toppled. An Islamist regime replaced it.

LIBYA RESISTS: After six months a similar pattern of events erupted in Libya, but the Qadafi regime attempted to defend itself with guns. Overnight, the allegedly ‘peaceful protesters’ obtained guns, too, and appeared well trained in their use. Who provided the guns and the training? The Western media never asked, not did their viewing public. It soon became clear this was no ‘protest movement’ but an in-depth organisation with a multi-layered structure. In battles against the Security Forces the ‘protesters ‘soon gained the upper hand. Who were they?

EGYPT: While a slow-burn civil war rumbled on in Libya the same pattern of 'low-level/high pressure' tactics began to appear in multiple countries: Egypt, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen. The tactics remained the same in every case, suggesting a common source or origin, the results varied according to the government response. While the enfeebled Tunisian government had folded quickly, Egypt's equally aged rulers, forewarned, took six months and massive pressure from the US before they resigned. Within a year Egypt had its first democratically selected ruler in 5,000 years. Twelve months later he was overthrown and military rule restored.

REGION-WIDE: The Libyan government, over-centralised on dynastic-rule by the Qadafi family, without them crumbled following the murder of Munamir and two of his three sons. The Yemeni socialist government resisted for eight months and a civil war occurred split the army. US pressure lead to the President’s departure but the war continues, albeit at a lower levels and aided by US drone strikes. The Bahraini monarchy wobbled but a friendly 'invasion' by Saudi Security Forces lead to a crackdown which killed hundreds and saw mass gaolings of hundreds of professionals - doctors, nurses, etc. 21 of these later received life sentences.

SYRIA: Protests there, as elsewhere, soon turned from peaceful demonstrations to armed uprising once security forces, as anticipated, used force. Libya was Syria’s close ally in the Rejectionist Front which, along with Iran, had rejected any ‘peace with Isral’. Unlike Libya, Syria had friendly neighbours in Lebanon and Iran. These were able to aid the Syrian government in its battles with the by now patently outside-trained death squads and the enemy Main Force units or 'armed groups' who followed in their wake. As one commentator put it: 'suddenly, everyone's got guns!'

NATO SPECIAL FORCES ROLE: Someone had been studying Mao Zedong’s three-layered structure for conducting guerrilla warfare. By Apri 2014, after over three years of struggle in-the-streets across five countries, it's clear why Western media were so quick to dub this a type of 'Spring' thaw like the one CIA/MI6 attempted in 1968 against Russian-ruled Czechoslovakia. This was a 'give-away': media were letting us know this was just another 'dirty tricks' operation, albeit on a massive scale. With thousands dead and, in Syria at least a million refugees, many were asking: 'cui bono'? 'Who has gained?'

*Warsaw Pact were 13 natons of East AND Central Europe bound by force to defend the USSR in event of war with USA – much as the NATO group are still bound by force to defend US interests in Western and Central Europe today – this begin the heart of the Ukraine dispute. This was the Cold War scenario – a war by proxies and slave-states].

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