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Arab Spring Yet to Bloom - by Stephen Lendman
Despite months of heroic Middle East/North African uprisings in over a dozen countries from Morocco to Syria to Oman, none so far achieved changed, suggesting months, perhaps years, of sustained struggles lie ahead.
Media commentators first used term Arab Spring in March 2005 to suggest a beneficial Iraq war spinoff, what, of course, never happened nor could it, given Washington's intent to prevent any emerging democracies.
However, it partly succeeded in Lebanon after Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's February 14, 2005 assassination. Afterwards, "Cedar Revolution" anger erupted, ending Syria's occupation, reducing, but not eliminating the Bashar al-Assad regime's influence in the country.
In late 2010, the term resurfaced to reflect regional uprisings still ongoing, on and off, across the Middle East/North Africa. In recent days, notably they've occurred in Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt.
Libya is noticeably different - a Western influenced insurrection now war to replace one despot with another, discussed in numerous previous articles
Throughout most of the region, people want jobs, decent pay, better services, ending corruption and repression, as well as liberating democratic change in a part of the world where poverty, unemployment and despotism reflect daily life for tens of millions.
A previous article headlined, "Hold the Celebration: Egypt's Struggle Just Began," saying everything changed but stayed the same, a common bait and switch scheme, notably because a military junta replaced Mubarak, assuring no possibility of democracy and social justice without sustained heroic pressure forcing it, though never easily against powerful pro-Western rulers.
As a result, after initial jubilation, Egyptians know their struggle just began against adversarial military leaders, continuing the same Mubarak era policies.
On April 8, New York Times writers Mona El-Naggar and Michael Slackman headlined, "Hero of Egypt's Revolution, Military Now Faces Critics," saying:
"A blogger was jailed recently for 'insulting the military.' Human rights advocates say that thousands of people have been arrested and tried before military courts in the last two months." Political activists were detained for spreading "false information" about military leaders. Others were intimidated, tortured and abused.
Jailed blogger Michael Nabil was secretly tried in a military tribunal and sentenced to three years imprisonment for saying:
"The revolution has so far managed to get rid of the dictator, but the dictatorship still exists."
One protester called the junta part of the old regime, so they're "defending it every way they can."
American University in Cairo Professor Mustapha Kamel el-Sayyid believes they're "incapable of understanding the extent to which the revolution wants to change things in the country. To them, removing the president was enough."
In fact, Washington and Egypt's military ousted him, not public anger wanting democratic change. Egyptians, however, demand it, as well as vital social issues addressed, a common unfulfilled theme throughout the region.
