Killing the Arab Spring

Sound Bite

Killing the Arab Spring tells the stories of the Arab Spring uprising in 15 Middle East states, from the point of view of a Middle Eastern political analyst familiar with the politics, the culture of the people and the history of the area. A committed secularist who has lived in the West most of his life, the author strives to be objective while standing up for democracy and human rights.

About the Book

Hasan shows that Arab leaders generally do not believe that government is a trust on behalf of the people. They believe that if there is democracy and their societies are composed of equal and competing individuals, there will be a tendency towards anarchy.

People involved in the Arab Spring uprisings demanded inclusive and equitable democracy, social justice and economic development. There were no civil society institutions strong enough to challenge the weapons of authoritarianism that included ideology, repression, payoffs and crony capitalists' solidarity.

The author argues that Saddam Hussein's 1980 war on Iran was the spark that set off a chain of events, leading to bloody wars which led to the US invasion of Iraq, Libya, and Syria, and to the Arab Spring uprisings. The revolts and the counter revolts took different forms in each country based on its history, the type of government and the economy. The author argues that the Arab Spring is a step in a long process toward democracy rather than an aberration between periods of authoritarian regimes.

To understand the causes of the Arab Spring and its aftermath, the book provides the reader with a review of the culture that is common across the Middle East that includes the history of the Islamic religion, specific sects, and Arab tribalism, with a brief history of each country.

There are few activities more controversial than writing the history of a nation involved in a conflict. Even while witnessing history unfolding in a country, different historians provide different narratives, different causes and different conclusions. This becomes more obvious when the history of the conflicts is viewed through the prism of the politics of sectarianism, ethnicity and tribalism. The author strives for an objective view, but he does not hide his strong support to liberal democracy and human rights.

Information

Long before the Arab Spring started, the US had been exploiting the power vacuum in Yemen to wage a covert war against terror organizations linked to al-Qaeda using drones and fighter jets.

To protect Yemen's President Saleh's standing among his people, these military operations were among the Obama administration's most closely held secrets. Everything was coordinated with the CIA teams in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. At the approval of President Obama in 2011, American drone aircraft fired missiles and killed the radical American-born fugitive Anwar al-Awlaki who was on the run in Yemen's tribal area. The US would not support an uprising against Saleh. After the Arab Spring, and the fall of Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime, the US has been in bed with the Saudi coalition, supporting its war on Yemen.

The military coup against the MB elected government must have been planned by the CIA and Israel's Mossad, and executed by Abdel-Fattah Sisi. The first action by the Egyptian military after the coup was closing the tunnels that were supplying Gaza with smuggled civilian needs and military weapons. The tunnels had been Israel's main grievance against Egypt's Husni Mubarak regime.Hypocrisy and double standards are the principles of the US policy-makers, before and after the Arab Spring. Democracy is promoted but not if it brings Islamic fundamentalists to power in Egypt or the Palestinian Authority. Nonproliferation is preached for Iran but not for Israel. Human rights are an issue with China, but not with Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Israel.

Aggression against oil-owning Kuwaitis is repulsed but not aggression against non-oil owning Bosnians. For that reason, the US is likely to continue having difficulties defending its interests against those of the ME societies. (This is an observation, not a defense of any undemocratic regime or abuser of human rights.)