The Mideast Malady

The Arab Mideast is sick. Tunisia sneezed and
blew its long-time President out of office into
exile in Saudi Arabia. Egypt caught a terrible
cough and expectorated its President out of
Cairo into exile in Sharm-a-Sheikh. Not so
curiously, Libya - alternately known as “The
Hidden Jewel Of Africa” or, by its detractors,
as “The Armpit Of Africa” - is geographically
sandwiched between the Tunisian sneeze and the
Egyptian cough. So, Libya and its mercurial
madman are also now suffering from a disabling
and perhaps fatal socio-political infection.

Even forty-one years of Jamahiriya (State of
the Masses) injections could not prevent
Qadaffi and not-so-loyal subjects from being
afflicted by the virus that is rapidly perfusing
the Mideast atmosphere. Apparently,Qadaffi’s
vaunted Jamahiriya juice (as that political
innoculation is derisively described by one
geopolitical pundit) has finally lost its
potency. But is this any surprise since
that now ineffectual vaccine was personally
manufactured by a leader who long ago lost
his legitimacy?

Not surprisingly, the Mideast malady that
has now percolated across much of North
Africa has mutated. Variant, but equally
virulent, forms of this virus (which some
have eagerly –if prematurely- dubbed
“The Arab Awakening”) have now severely
infected Bahrein, Yemen and Syria. Many
Arab states are scurrying about attempting
to provide their restive populations
with face masks (economic incentives aka
bribes) to limit the further spread of
the virus in their countries.

Depending upon what media reports and upon
whose human intelligence one relies, the
manifestations of the fast-spreading
Mideast malady may be characterized in
several ways. Some say the malady is a
profusion of widespread Arab interest in
the enhancement of human dignity. Perhaps.
Others suggest that the popular pursuit of
elementary human rights by young Arabs is
breeding the virus. Maybe. There are even
those who contend that the virus is fed
by an incipient Arab struggle for a more
democratic (or is it merely a less autocratic?)
society.

Would that some of this conjecture
was so. Perhaps some are, but slogans
are slippery, mottos are messy and
shoot-from-the-hip analyses are dicey. And
so are mass protests and public demonstrations
of discontent. They are not always what
they purport to be.

Indeed, the accuracy of the above diagnoses
of the Mideast malady is quite unconfirmed.
The true nature of the alleged Arab awakening
is subject to prolonged verification in
multiple Mideast laboratories. To be politically
correct, these laboratories are more accurately
identified as Arab nations. Not unexpectedly,
most –if not all- of these nations and their
potentates are committed –above all else- to
preserving the status quo. And that is the
redoubtable rub.

Pointedly, while Arab autocrats and Mideast
monarchs are distinctly different in multiple
regards, they do manifest one significant
common characteristic. They fight with a
defiant, dogged and seemingly fatalistic
determination to stay in power. Colonel
Qadaffi is not the exception, he is an
exemplar of this pattern.

Still, the two long-term Arab autocrats
in Tunisia and Egypt have already succumbed
to the Mideast malady. If that virus is
equally lethal to other Arab rulers, then
the potentates across the residue of the
Arab Mideast are hardly insulated from the
ravages of that implacable virus. Syria’s
President Bashir al-Assad recently protested
that Syria was immune from the turmoil. He
was wrong. Smug Saudi officials have made
similar protestations about the Saudi
populace. The Saudis may have unduly discounted
the relentless virulence of the Mideast malady.

It seems uncontrovertible that the fragmented
and fractured Arab populaces are uniformly
seeking new realities. But their aspirations
and the realities they seek are arguably as
different as are the nations they people and
the dictatorial rulers who dominate them.

In fact, the precise composition and character
of the many disparate groups that carry and/or
propagate the Mideast malady are still muddled.
Additionally, the nature of the new realities
they seek remains befogged by uncertainty,
beclouded by indecision and beset by a dirth
of demonstrable leadership. This is true in
Egypt, in Libya, in Yemen, in Syria and
elsewhere in the region. And all that, indeed,
may offer some insight into the pathology of
the relentless malady that is enveloping
and -perhaps- indefinitely paralyzing the Arab Mideast.

The often inscrutable insight of an old
Arabic aphorism may be be pertinent.
The adage suggests that “the best jihad
is telling the truth to the face of a dictator!”