The Arab revolution and Western decline

This is what is happening now. It is reality no matter how much people want to hide their head in the sand and pretend it is none of our business and it won't effect us. THIS is the new reality of the world we are about to live in! It is not some fear tactic unless you have had your head up your arse for decades.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/op ... e-1.340967

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.


Welcome to the world that Obama and 53% of Americans created!

Most Americans are asleep at the wheel...its just a matter of time!

And they try to tell us that we are Alarmists!!!!

There are realists and idealists and those who could give a damn. Truly, I see a parallel in science. Scientists formulate hypothesis on data. Some require a lot of data to form their ideas, other require much less to reach similar conclusions. The problem is that those who reach their conclusions on the basis of relatively sparse data, are at more at risk of being wrong that those who are slow on the uptake. Conversely, if right, then they are prepared to seize opportunities as they come along, or can avert disaster at its worst. Think of alarmists as those scientists who see the likely scenarios early and thus put themselves in a position of either being wrong or able to avert disasters. Put yourself out there and even the rest of your colleagues may ridicule you until they too see the light. Of course, those who oppose or arrive at different conclusions either because they fail to see the relationships or have other agendas will delight in ridicule too. It is a risky game. But as always, those who have foresight avoid being ground into oblivion.