Change In The Arab World

I had been intending recently to do a post about Pakistan, but the news lately has been dominated by the revolts taking place in many of the Arab countries. I will get to Pakistan very soon, though.

I do have to say that the wave of uprisings, particularly in the North African countries, is one of the most exciting events in the news since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The world is changing before our eyes and all we can really do is watch it happen and hope for the best.

Inevitably, what is happening in places like Egypt and Tunisia has been compared to the uprisings against the Communist countries of Eastern Europe more than two decades ago. One of the differences between what is happening today versus Eastern Europe is that the governments overthrown in 1989 were all more or less client states of the Soviet Union. Sure, Mubarak's government in Egypt could be described as a client state of the United States to some degree, but one cannot say the same thing with regard to Moammar Gaddafi's Libya.

With Gaddafi in particular, his regime is is certainly the one thus far that has shown the willingness to shed the most blood to defend itself. If the Arab revolts are to be compared to Eastern Europe in 1989, then Gaddafi is turning out to be the Arab Nicolae Ceasescu. Whether Gaddafi will end up sharing the same fate as the Romanian dictator remains to be seen, though he certainly seems to be heading in that direction.