One hour ago, I recorded a news special on the Arabic channel of Al-Jazeera which has everything in it to describe how the Arabic world is driving into a chaos that, we hope, might finally generate a new era of freedom and democracy.
When traditional structures of power finally broke away in Tunisia and Egypt, opposition groups of other Arabic nations took the initiative to give vent to their anger.
The Algerian opposition had already taken to the streets when the Tunisian revolution just began and nobody even imagined that Egypt's citizens, by starting their own revolution from scratch, would bring about enough manpower on the streets of Kairo, Alexandria and Suez as to overtake the Algerians in their fight for freedom and democracy.
And now, the virus of protest has even infected the people of Bahrain, that tiny Arabic nation living on an island which has already become known as the "biggest U.S. aircraft carrier" because of its U.S. naval base. A deeply rooted mistrust against the ruling family has now driven the people into an open resistance. Public unrest first showed up only three days ago. Latest news: The Bahrain military deployed lots of tanks to support police forces. Then, both, police and military obviously succeeded in cracking down on the demonstrators to restore "silence and order" once again, but who knows for how long that fragile peace will last while problems still remain unsolved....
Bahrain's foreign minister, a member of the
ruling Khalifa family. Protesters in Manama.
A similar situation emerged in Yemen where protests against the Yemenite president are already lasting six days. Lots of protesting students and other demonstrators meet with pro-government protesters.
The Yemenite president and protesters on
the streets of Aden in Southern Yemen.
Protesters on the streets of Yemen's capital Sanaa.
From here, the uprising spread to all over Yemen.
Even Libya under the rule of its notorious president Ghadafi and Sudan, ruled by its despotic president Basher, are on the list of ideal candidates for the next revolutions to come.
Libyan opposition volunteers and pro-government groups fighting each other on the streets of Benghasi and elsewhere. Some of them tearing
down pictures of president Ghadafi while others are showing their support
for the "leader of the Libyan revolution". We already knew that such pro-
government groups existed, ready to interfere in case that ordinary people
might take to the streets. How else, Ghadafi could have politically
survived during all those years when he was either marked as one of
those grey figures behind Arabic terrorism in the so-called Lockerbie
incident, or when he surprised his Arabic fellow-statesmen once and again
with his peculiar statements on how to solve regional problems ? During
all those years of economic boycott on behalf of the U.S. that temporarily
drove his oil producing country into poverty, people in Libya had already
been fed up with their leader's style of ruling the country and the way
of life led by Ghadafi's family clan.
The below picture is showing organized pro-government protesters.
During yesterday's uprising, heavy shooting has been reported
that left demonstrators severely wounded or dead. Hours later,
the flames of revolution reached other important towns of Libya
according to Al-Jazeera. Up to now, it is still difficult to get
enough and reliable pictures out of Libya.
Al-Jazeera's Arabic subtitle to the above picture:
"Two died and tens were wounded in Benghazi when Libyan security
clashed with protesters the day before demonstrations (took place)
against the (political) system in Libya."
Not to speak of Iraq and Jordan, both countries being closely linked together because of a common history under the rule of the Hashemite dynasty. By the way, the border between Egypt and the Gaza strip is still closed. That might change within the days to come, such enabling Palestinian habitants of Gaza to get in some aid.
Iraqi citizens taking to the street.
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