Submitted by: Kurt J Fitsch
The Arab revolution and Western decline
Published 01:53 03.02.11 Latest update 01:53 03.02.11
By Ari Shavit
Two huge processes are happening right before our eyes. One is the Arab liberation
revolution. After half a century during which tyrants have ruled the Arab world, their
control is weakening. After 40 years of decaying stability, the rot is eating into
the stability. The Arab masses will no longer accept what they used to accept.
The Arab elites will no longer remain silent.
Processes that have been roiling beneath the surface for about a decade are suddenly
bursting out in an intifada of freedom. Modernization, globalization, telecommunications
and Islamization have created a critical mass that cannot be stopped. The example of
democratic Iraq is awakening others, and Al Jazeera's subversive broadcasts are fanning
the flames. And so the Tunisian bastille fell, the Cairo bastille is falling and other
Arab bastilles will fall.
The scenes are similar to the Palestinian intifada of 1987, but the collapse recalls
the Soviet collapse in Eastern Europe of 1989. No one knows where the intifada will
lead. No one knows whether it will bring democracy, theocracy or a new kind of democracy.
But things will never again be the same.
The old order in the Middle East is crumbling. Just as the officers' revolution in
the 1950s brought down the Arab monarchism that had relied on the colonial powers,
the 2011 revolution in the square is bringing down the Arab tyrants who were dependent
on the United States.
The second process is the acceleration of the decline of the West. For some 60 years
the West gave the world imperfect but stable order. It built a kind of post-imperial
empire that promised relative quiet and maximum peace. The rise of China, India, Brazil
and Russia, like the economic crisis in the United States, has made it clear that the
empire is beginning to fade.
And yet, the West has maintained a sort of international hegemony. Just as no
replacement has been found for the dollar, none has been found for North Atlantic
leadership. But Western countries' poor handling of the Middle East proves they are
no longer leaders. Right before our eyes the superpowers are turning into palaver
powers.
There are no excuses for the contradictions. How can it be that Bush's America
understood the problem of repression in the Arab world, but Obama's America ignored
it until last week? How can it be that in May 2009, Hosni Mubarak was an esteemed
president whom Barack Obama respected, and in January 2011, Mubarak is a dictator
whom even Obama is casting aside? How can it be that in June 2009, Obama didn't
support the masses who came out against the zealot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while now
he stands by the masses who are coming out against the moderate Mubarak?
There is one answer: The West's position is not a moral one that reflects a real
commitment to human rights. The West's position reflects the adoption of Jimmy Carter's
worldview: kowtowing to benighted, strong tyrants while abandoning moderate, weak ones.
Carter's betrayal of the Shah brought us the ayatollahs, and will soon bring us ayatollahs
with nuclear arms. The consequences of the West's betrayal of Mubarak will be no less
severe. It's not only a betrayal of a leader who was loyal to the West, served stability
and encouraged moderation. It's a betrayal of every ally of the West in the Middle East
and the developing world. The message is sharp and clear: The West's word is no word at
all; an alliance with the West is not an alliance. The West has lost it. The West has
stopped being a leading and stabilizing force around the world.
The Arab liberation revolution will fundamentally change the Middle East. The
acceleration of the West's decline will change the world. One outcome will be a
surge toward China, Russia and regional powers like Brazil, Turkey and Iran. Another
will be a series of international flare-ups stemming from the West's lost deterrence.
But the overall outcome will be the collapse of North Atlantic political hegemony not
in decades, but in years. When the United States and Europe bury Mubarak now, they are
also burying the powers they once were. In Cairo's Tahrir Square, the age of Western
hegemony is fading away.
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