Explaining the persistence of violence, sectarianism, and incompetence.
BY AARON DAVID MILLER
Foreign Policy | JUNE 25, 2013
The
Middle East really doesn't need any more bad news.
Still,
it's official. The region now has its own disease: a dangerous virus called
MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome -- perhaps related to the SARS virus,
but apparently deadlier.
This sad
news started me thinking (again) about the sad state of the region. There are
some bright spots -- or at least some spots that are not as dark. Tunisia seems
to be making a relatively stable transition without paralytic violence and
incompetent governance. And there's a younger generation of Arabs and Muslims
who seem bent on freeing themselves from the old ways, demanding not only
personal freedom but dignity, too. I'm reminded of Howard Beale's famous rant in
Network: They're mad as hell, and they're
not going to take it anymore.
Nevertheless,
much of the region looks bad: violence in Iraq; civil war in Syria and violent
spillover into Lebanon; growing popular despair in
Egypt; repression in Bahrain; lack of central authority in Libya; and an
impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Even in Turkey, the wonder
state, things have become unhinged.
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