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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 7:20 am Post subject: |
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| I guess my point was he might leave but I wouldn't be surprised if the status quo remains. |
This seems a reasonable result if no alternative is organized before the incumbent is ousted. alJazeera just said 3 generals and a cart-load of ambassadors all resigned.
Poor alJazeera is being overwhelmed...they left Yemen and started talking about Syria, then showed Syrian pix while reverting to Yemen.
alJazeerah is running a live blog on Yemen.
The Defense Minister just announced he won't allow the government to be overthrown. (That means, in my experience, that the possibility of overthrow is fairly high.) |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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Proud Tunisians Aid Libyan Refugees
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| Khiary explained how people from all over Tunisia, even the poorest, were donating aid and volunteering to help the refugees. His own tour company, Tunisie Voyages, had lent the islanders a coach. "Fifty volunteers went to the border, to clean the camp," he told me. "This is what was missing for many decades. Before, this sort of effort would have been used politically. Now the people are doing it for their country." |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 1:44 pm Post subject: |
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Stratfor: Yemen in Crisis
| Stratfor wrote: |
Yemen, while ranking much lower on a strategic level than Bahrain, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, also is not immune to Iran�s agenda. In the northern Yemeni province of Saada, the Yemeni state has struggled to suppress a rebellion by al-Houthis of the Zaydi sect, considered an offshoot of Shiite Islam and heretical by Wahhabi standards. Riyadh fears al-Houthi unrest in Yemen�s north will stir unrest in Saudi Arabia�s southern provinces of Najran and Jizan, which are home to the Ismailis, also an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Ismaili unrest in the south could then embolden Shia in Saudi Arabia�s oil-rich Eastern Province, who have already been carrying out demonstrations against the Saudi monarchy with Iranian backing.
When Saudi Arabia deployed troops in the al-Houthi-Ismaili borderland between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in late 2009, STRATFOR picked up indications that the al-Houthis were receiving some support from Iran, albeit nothing that was considered a game-changer in the rebellion. With unrest spreading throughout eastern Arabia and the Yemeni state falling into a deepening political crisis, the Saudis now have to worry about Iran exploiting a second front through Yemen to threaten the Saudi underbelly. This is in addition to all the other �usual� security issues afflicting Yemen, most notably the threat posed by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which uses Yemen as a staging ground for attempts at more strategic attacks in the Saudi kingdom. |
Meanwhile, Iran is naturally backing the Shi'ite rebellion in Bahrain. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Meanwhile, Iran is naturally backing the Shi'ite rebellion in Bahrain. |
Aggravating when Iran is on the right side, isn't it?
Early on, the Bahraini royal family could have gone for a constitutional monarchy and saved their privileged Sunni bacon. Now it isn't so likely.
The Saudis have announced they are letting some kind of local councils have elections in the next few weeks. This wouldn't have the stink of desperation if they'd done it years ago.
You reap what you sow. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
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| Meanwhile, Iran is naturally backing the Shi'ite rebellion in Bahrain. |
Aggravating when Iran is on the right side, isn't it? |
If you mean Bahrain ONLY, then I have to concede that Iran is on the right side.
Middle Eastern machinations are ugly. No party remains unsullied. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Middle Eastern machinations are ugly. No party remains unsullied. |
I think we get kind of a bad rap in the Middle East. When we first showed up around 1800 they'd all had kings, emirs, sultans, beys, and whatever for a couple of thousand years. There's a fair amount of blame-it-on-the-foreigners syndrome as an emotional gambit to avoid taking responsibility for their own failures. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Middle Eastern machinations are ugly. No party remains unsullied. |
I think we get kind of a bad rap in the Middle East. When we first showed up around 1800 they'd all had kings, emirs, sultans, beys, and whatever for a couple of thousand years. There's a fair amount of blame-it-on-the-foreigners syndrome as an emotional gambit to avoid taking responsibility for their own failures. |
That's kind of my point. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Middle Eastern machinations are ugly. No party remains unsullied. |
I think we get kind of a bad rap in the Middle East. When we first showed up around 1800 they'd all had kings, emirs, sultans, beys, and whatever for a couple of thousand years. There's a fair amount of blame-it-on-the-foreigners syndrome as an emotional gambit to avoid taking responsibility for their own failures. |
That's kind of my point. |
I would submit that there is not a people on earth who would not rather have their own bad government, than the benevolent government of an occupying power.
Whenever I hear this I wonder how we would all feel if D.C. and Downing Street were suddenly taken over by outsiders. Not too thrilled I imagine. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:53 am Post subject: |
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Protest of 20K in Syrian city of Daraa
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Around 20,000 Syrians chanting freedom slogans marched on Thursday at the funerals of nine protesters killed by security forces in the southern city of Daraa, witnesses said.
"The blood of martyrs is not spilt in waste!" they chanted in Daraa's southern cemetery.
The nine were among at least 25 people shot dead by security forces on Wednesday, residents said.
A witness told Al Jazeera that more than 100 people were killed.
He said many people have gone missing and bodies have been dragged away from the streets. The town was in chaos, he said.
A hospital in Daraa had said earlier that it had received the bodies of at least 25 protesters who died in confrontations with security forces. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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After the bloody tragedy in Syria, maybe some good news:
Protests prompt Syria to pledge reforms
Government to consider ending emergency rule and licensing political parties in wake of deadly protests.
"I am happy to announce to you the decisions made today by the Arab Baath party under the auspices of President Bashar al-Assad ... which include ... studying the possibility of lifting the emergency law and licensing political parties," the president's media adviser Buthaina Shaaban said at a news conference on Thursday...
"Soon after the promises of reforms were made, the prisoners detained in the city during the protests were released. There were also reports of orders being issued by the president for the army to pull out of Daraa."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/2011324164740741279.html#
I wonder if this will be enough to pacify the protesters or if it will be seen as weakness and spur them on to demands for complete reform. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:25 am Post subject: |
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Syrian Troops Open Fire on Protesters in Several Cities
The Boss Falls. Then What?. An op-ed on the Yemen situation
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If Mr. Saleh falls and the international community fails this time, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula will be waiting in the wings to take advantage of the situation. Already, the organization has tipped its hand in recent statements, hinting at the argument it will be making in the coming months: Yemen, their ideologues have argued, has suffered under both monarchies and democracies. And now, they say, is the moment to finally return to the straight path of Islamic law.
If serious steps aren�t taken to rescue Yemen from its downward trajectory, that argument will soon sound a lot more appealing than it does today. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:34 am Post subject: |
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The only Arab countries I can think of that haven't had significant protests this year:
UAE
Qater
And maybe Lebanon, I'm not sure about there. That's it. Crazy. |
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ZIFA
Joined: 23 Feb 2011
Location: Dici che il fiume..Trova la via al mare
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| Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
The only Arab countries I can think of that haven't had significant protests this year:
UAE
Qater
And maybe Lebanon, I'm not sure about there. That's it. Crazy. |
Any chance of the protests spreading to Pakistan do you think? or would that be too much to ask for. |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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Be careful thinking that one side is the right side and the other totally in the wrong. It is usually more complex. But at this point I am somewhat happy to see the unrest. A little revolution is good it stirs up ideas, refreshes the governing groups. worry here is that movements will be hijacked. Western influence in the region has been both good and bad. In Kuwait British protection led to a well governed prosperous country. In Iran, the British played hell as did the Americans. In North Africa, I think little good came of French and Italian colonization.
Real change is usually paid for with blood. |
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