[scotto]

Epicurus, on 13 March 2011 - 07:51 PM, said:

Agreed. Saudi Arabia sees the writing on the wall and is policing their muslim minority in ways we westerners protest against in Lybia. I have not heard the US speak out against the Saudi's for their heavy handed approach.

Interesting, and I think true. We see that the Saudis are also lending themselves to Bahrain's government in a very anti-democratic way - this could be very dangerous for them in the medium-long term as their own population is far from satisfied with the status quo. If they fail to help quell the Bahrain protests, then they will end up with egg on their face - or they could buy their way into their own little Vietnam/Iraq/Afghanistan situation.

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[Marat]

The Sunni rulers in Saudi Arabia are not about to abandon their brothers in Bahrain, even though they are in a minority. The US is deeply emeshed with the Saudis. In the medium term this will be another American diplomatic disaster.

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[scotto]

Agreed - the US needs to follow democratic principles all the time, not just when it helps oust someone like Gaddafi. I bet they're just begging for Syria to go the same way right now.

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[scotto]

Now we see that 5 months later, Syria is still in even greater unrest than it was before. The Lebanese government seems to have begun a 'security' crackdown in sympathy, however there is no sign of the Syrian revolt stopping. Wow.

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[scotto]

Just got to ask.. where do you think Syria is going? No sign of the resistance to Assad folding, in fact it seems to be growing, and his allies are getting nervous, including Iran.

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[GeorgeParsons]

The Syrian middle class has abandonded the Regime. It can only be a matter of time.

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[scotto]

GeorgeParsons, on 18 October 2011 - 01:09 PM, said:

The Syrian middle class has abandonded the Regime. It can only be a matter of time.

And I guess the fact that parts of the professional army is changing sides is a part of this.

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[Bam]

It's not a slow news day when the ABC bring out the big fonts to announce that Gaddafi is dead.

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[scotto]

Bam, on 21 October 2011 - 08:04 AM, said:

It's not a slow news day when the ABC bring out the big fonts to announce that Gaddafi is dead.

You're not wrong!

In such a short space of time, look at what has changed - although of course there are some new issues emerging, such as in Egypt.

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[GeorgeParsons]

I hope that the Arab Spring is not another 1848.

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[scotto]

GeorgeParsons, on 21 October 2011 - 04:18 PM, said:

I hope that the Arab Spring is not another 1848.

My history is not that good, George, but I too hope that the current issues in Egypt are only a bump on the road to a free and open culture there, not a harbinger of worse to come.

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[scotto]

And we should add Syria, or at least talk about it. How long can the Russians remain close to Assad and not get covered in the stench of his actions?

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[scotto]

So Assad has asserted that Syria is not in a state of civil war.... what are we to make of the Syrian warplanes bombing Damascus, then?

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[scotto]

So Assad has asserted that Syria is not in a state of civil war.... what are we to make of the Syrian warplanes bombing Damascus, then?

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[scotto]

I think that the outcome of the removal of chemical weapons, without military interventions, from Syria is a good thing. This is because interventions on eh ground typically kill more people than we're being killed up to the point of the intervention.

What should happen next?

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