Two years after the start of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, some people still view the Arab Spring as a hopeful event, believing that those revolutions came spontaneously from the people. I however, who was born in Tunisia and know the country very well, have never believed this version. There are some political adventurers who want to change the world as they see it in their dream. Those who sided with this version have not taken into consideration the consequences and the damage caused to the people. They believed that shortly after the revolution democracy would be instituted. The opposite happened. Instead of the existing democracy, theocracy was instituted. Now we can see that the result of those revolutions brought only damage to the people involved and to the country in question. As far as I can see instead of bringing hope and improvement for the people, the revolution brought theocracy and more suffering to the population. The American school and all the cars in the American Embassy Parking lot were burnt and no one talks about it anymore. Furthermore, Tunisia denied the US the right to interrogate the terrorist who participated in the Benghazi destruction of the American Embassy, where four Americans died, and who fled to Tunisia. No single newspaper or TV chain spoke about this.
As I heard from various Tunisians, they now praise the past of the country. They say that under Ben Ali who supposedly was a thief and stole a fortune from the state treasury, the people enjoyed life, as they were free to circulate everywhere without fear, eat what they wanted without any hindrance or shortage of food. National and international business was working and tourism and hospitality were booming. In short, there was a certain freedom, and an order and people were happy. They had a constitution, a parliament and a competent government. When I visited Tunisia I did not see any difference between the way of life in Tunisia, Europe, or the United States.
The revolution in Libya was even worse. The US left it to France to manage the support for the rebels, and “lead from behind” by sending Tomahawks from the US fleet in the Mediterranean, to help those groups which were highly infiltrated by the Al Qaeda. Nobody supervised the entire arsenal of arms, consisting of a military fleet, tanks, air planes, canons, mortars, ammunition for all these and chemical weapons. No one can tell us today where they are. The US lost track and they surfaced in the Middle East in the hands of Hamas and the Syrian rebels thanks to Qatar which is selling them to Iran for Hamas. Until today, we do not have the facts of what happened in Benghazi.
In Egypt, Mubarak was a great friend of America and Israel, and ensured 30 years of stability in the entire Middle East, which now is in complete disarray. Until now I do not understand why Obama was so eager to get rid of him in a very insulting way. Until today he is in jail. And what does Egypt have now? A theocracy whit the Muslim Brotherhood at the helm and constant revolts, because we neglected the moderate part of the population and the Christians, who are under attack. Furthermore, Morsi does not care to control the Sinai, where American troops are stationed and are now in danger. He also neglected to control the creation of hundreds of tunnels from the Sinai Peninsula into Gaza, where tons of arms and other goods are smuggled. Hundreds of groups are constantly roaming in the Sinai Peninsula, some armed, some not, some belonging to Al Qaeda, without interference of the Egyptian Army and some are crossing over into Israel. As far as I know, in the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt the US guarantees that these two countries do not get into a conflict again, by placing radars and American troops there.
As for Syria, since its inception two years ago, the revolution caused an enormous loss of lives, according to the press, which reports that since the beginning almost hundred thousand died and almost half a million civilians are wounded, not counting the armies deaths and wounded throught fight on both sides. There are over a million of homeless and refugees. Is this the dream that political people wished for? Do we have the right for taking on such an irresponsible adventure?
With these revolutions, our country is more squeezed and in need to start from the beginning to make friends with the countries of that region. Even Secretary of State Kerry, who visited Morsi recently, was not satisfied of his conversation with Morsi who is busy installing Islamic rule in the country and changing the composition of the Parliament to include only people faithful to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Without knowing where the wind leads us, we can tell for sure that the Arab Spring was a man-made disaster, as Obama would say. In fact we are the ones who encouraged the revolutions and the exile of the leadership of existing governments which helped the US. Those revolutions created general damage to our country, the USA without ever getting to see real democracies in that part of the world. The Arab Spring has changed the situation in different regions without knowing what the future is reserving for all of us. In fact we strengthened El Qaida by giving them an advantage. It became now a substantial power which spans from Bagdad to Syria and from the Sinai to North Africa, helped by the Muslim brotherhood. Some newspapers say that the Muslim Brotherhood were the ones who were involved in Benghazi, Mali, and at the Algerian gas installations.
The Lebanese border became more dangerous since the Hezbollah is active in Syria to help Assad’s army and battle the groups of insurgents. Jordan and Lebanon find themselves in new surroundings having to accommodate fighters and refugees.
Jordan is hanging on a thread, with an unknown situation, as it became a refugee place for the Syrians and serving as a center for Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are supplying weapons for the Syrian insurgents and putting the kingdom in danger.
Meanwhile in Tunisia, the new religious government Ennahda can neither secure the country nor satisfy the population, as most of the government members are unable and incapable to govern, as they came directly from jail where they were incarcerated by the former government for all kinds of criminal activities.
Copyright 2013 Emile Tubiana
