The Democratic Movement of the Arab Spring

Beginning at the end of 2010 and continuing into 2011, there has been a string of uprisings in the Arab world that has led to revolutions, government reforms, and even civil wars. The Arab Spring, as it is called in the international community, is being compared to the Revolutions of 1989. In 1989 a wave of revolutionary movements swept across the communist and socialist states of the world. These revolutions were fueled by political repression, low standard of living, lack of freedom of speech and information, and the will of the people to choose the leaders of their countries. These revolutions were marked with the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, and the unification of Germany with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. Communism is perfect on paper, but in real life, it only works for ants, bees, and mole rats.

The Arab Spring began with an uprising in the North African country of Tunisia with the ouster of President Ben Ali, who ruled Tunisia for 24 years; soon after protest and uprisings sprang up in every country of the Arab World. It was a domino effect. Egypt had a revolution that ended with the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak who ruled for 30 years, control of the country being handed over to the Egyptian armed forces until elections can be held at the end of 2011, the suspension of the Egyptian constitution, and the dissolution of parliament. We can probably expect another uprising in Egypt though, because if history holds true to itself, the outcome of handing control of a country to the arm forces usually leads to a dictator, which was the case in Uganda with Idi Amin. Anyways, now a day, the media mainly focuses on the uprisings in Libya and Syria. In Syria, peaceful, unarmed protesters are being attacked by the Syrian military with snipers, gun boats, tanks, and military raids on cities that resulted in the killing of any opposition. President Bashar al-Assad has authorized these tactics to regain control of Syria. By doing this, he is risking a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution which could result in military action by foreign countries to stop these harsh, inhumane ways of subduing the opposition, which was exactly what happened in Libya.

On January 14, 2011, Libyan protesters clashed with police and attacked government offices. On February 15, 2011, anti-government protests began. Protest turned violent and strong man President Muammar Gaddafi responded with violent tactics. Reports have claimed the Libyan military employed snipers, helicopter gunships, artillery, and warplanes against protesters and rebel fighters. The UNSC responded with the passing of UNSC Resolution 1973, which implemented a no-fly zone over all of northern Libya. NATO and its allies fired up their war machines to enforce this no-fly zone, protect civilians, and support the rebels in their struggle to topple Gaddafi's 42 year regime over Libya with aerial and naval support. France, shockingly, led the way. I have to give the French props for their leadership and making an executive decision. The French are usually ridiculed as being cowards but they proved everyone wrong in this situation. Now, Libya is engulfed in a bloody civil war between Gaddafi's regime with their stronghold being the capital of Tripoli and the National Transition Council whose stronghold is the eastern city of Benghazi.

The Arab Spring has resulted in major protest in every Arab country except the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Mauritania, Qatar, and the Western Sahara. Revolutions are unavoidable. They are gonna happen sooner or later because all countries become corrupt at some point in their existence. If a revolution doesn't happen, than major governmental reforms are implemented to meet the demands of the opposition. There were numerous factors that led to the Arab Spring; such as dictatorships or absolute monarchy, human rights violations, government corruption, economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, and a number of other things. When you have factors like those that are oppressing the masses, you get large waves of revolutions that will topple the tyrannical ways of the current governments. This happened in the Spanish American Wars of Independence and the revolutions of 1848, 1917-1923, 1989, and they are happening today.

These people are fighting for a cause. They are fighting for freedom, liberty, and justice, which are all things we take for granted here in the United States where those factors are all essential for the survival of our democratic and free society. As Americans, when we fight a war without a cause that we, as a people, have justified amongst us, we don't take it seriously and we complain if the fight takes longer than expected. Since 1989, the United States military has lost close to 7,000 soldiers in military operations, but 16,890-17,113+ freedom fighters have died in the Arab Spring between December 18, 2010 and present day and their numbers rise every day. Their cause is important to them, so they plan to achieve their goal at all cost, which we don't plan to do in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the words of the great Abraham Lincoln, "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from this earth."