Thomas Sowell has an as-usual excellent perspective on recent events in the Middle East here.
I commented thusly:
We have in this country I think, a misinterpretation of our own history that leads us to assume the creation of free government is merely a matter of getting rid of despotic government.
Though the Founders created the Constitutional structure in a year, it was built upon local institutions of self-government that had been in place for nearly two centuries, and a tradition of common law that had been evolving for over a thousand years.
As much as I’d like to hope the peoples of the Middle East can “secure the blessings of liberty to (them)selves and (their) posterity” I don’t see the underlying structure in place.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be done, but it’s not going to be easy or quick.
* I should note when I was in Belarus last month, my libertarian friends were watching events in Tunisia with interest. They were watching for the specific economic factors they thought might trigger similar unrest in their country, perhaps next year.
And interestingly, it appears Qadaffi’s personal plane may have dropped off a family member, perhaps his daughter, seeking refuge in Belarus. Lukashenko has great relations with Libya and may very well offer Qadaffi refuge when things go south for him.
Enjoy it while you can Muamar, the girls in Belarus are spectacular but it ain’t gonna be a safe haven long for you.
* CBS corespondent Lara Logan had a bad time in Cairo. Lefty Nir Rosen was a swine in public about it (so what else is new?) and quite properly lost a cushy high-pay-low-work job over it. Further right, blogger Debbie Schlussel got unhinged about it, but oddly seemed to contradict Rosen. Nir called Logan a “warmonger,” and Schlussel seemed to think she was a Muslim sympathizer.
Ilana Mercer stated the obvious – which at times like this can be an act of courage. Covering the news in Islamic countries is freaking dangerous if you’re an attractive, blonde woman who dresses like a female American news anchor.
For the record, I don’t know Lara Logan’s work, I only heard of her for the first time when this hit the news.
Further for the record, I don’t know precisely what happened to Logan during her “sexual assault” – which is all the media will call it. However I doubt she was gang-raped, as some who don’t know either have said. I suspect strongly what happened was she got groped and had her clothes torn to shreds, with some bruises to show for it.
Why do I think so?
She was out of the hospital too soon for really bad stuff to have happened. And I am not making light of the traumatic nature of what she went through – but she’s covered wars and has to have seen some really gross things.
So let me tell you what I saw once in the Kingdom when I was teaching at an Industrial Training Center on the Arabian Gulf.
One day during the break between classes when all the students were in the hallways, I heard that sound which once heard can never be forgotten. The mass howl of a mob which has become a single organism with a single voice.
It’s the sound I imagine was the last thing heard by the victims of lynch mobs.
When students started to trickle back in I asked, “What the hell happened? Was there a fight?”
One answered, “It was a woman. An American woman.”
It turned out a party of American oil company executives were touring the ITC, and the one woman in the party got separated from the others and was walking alone through the corridors when the classes got out for break.
I was told later they were screaming things like, “Can I fuck you?”
She wasn’t touched to my knowledge, but it must have been terrifying.
Now consider, this didn’t happen during a demonstration when everybody was already worked up. It was just a normal day at the training center.
Granted, sexual segregation is far more extreme in Saudi Arabia than much of the Islamic world. I believe some of my students had never spoken to a woman who was not their mother or sister. But this is part of the reality on the ground in the Middle East, and anyone who thinks these countries are democracies waiting to happen would do well to keep this in mind.