Arab Spring a bad thing?

[pirana 0]

I don't like the term, but figure using it makes the topic obvious. Who thinks the citizens of dictatorships rising up against despotic rulers is a bad thing?

Apparently Michelle Bachman does. In a speech given in NC she "blames" Obama for the uprisings. I use quotes because it amazes me that she thinks the uprisings are bad and that someone needs to be blamed. Very bizarre person.

Then she links it to Jimmy Carter "failing" to back the Shah. Perhaps if we would not have backed his regime (and others like him) for so long things in the Middle East would have gone down a path different than the radical jihad we see today.

What I take from this is that she thinks we should continue to back heavy-handed dictators and that the citizens of those countries should stiop rising up against them?

Is her brain plugged in? Don't the people that support her ever notice she can not speak past vague soundbites when pressed for details on her bizarre comments?

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[winsor 236]

Quote

I don't like the term, but figure using it makes the topic obvious. Who thinks the citizens of dictatorships rising up against despotic rulers is a bad thing?

Apparently Michelle Bachman does. In a speech given in NC she "blames" Obama for the uprisings. I use quotes because it amazes me that she thinks the uprisings are bad and that someone needs to be blamed. Very bizarre person.

Then she links it to Jimmy Carter "failing" to back the Shah. Perhaps if we would not have backed his regime (and others like him) for so long things in the Middle East would have gone down a path different than the radical jihad we see today.

What I take from this is that she thinks we should continue to back heavy-handed dictators and that the citizens of those countries should stiop rising up against them?

Is her brain plugged in? Don't the people that support her ever notice she can not speak past vague soundbites when pressed for details on her bizarre comments?

While what little I know of Bachman suggests that she is hard of thinking, I suspect that the Arab Spring uprisings will turn out to be a mixed blessing at best.

The overthrow of the Czars was the result of the February Revolution, subsequent seizure of power by the Bolsheviks was in the October Revolution.

In Camden, NJ they had barely finished imprisoning most of the local government when it was noted the those who had taken office thereafter simply picked up where their predecessors had left off.

Throughout history, hated despots have frequently been removed forcibly from office. They have been routinely replaced by individuals and groups that were every bit as bad - and often worse.

The Anarchists and their ilk have long claimed that people are basically honest and kind and fair and decent and so forth, and that the horrible powers that be are the source of all social ills. All that needs to be done, the theory goes, is to remove the bad people from power and the world will resemble a Walt Disney movie.

Unfortunately, those in power are all too often a reflection of the population. If you have an evil asshole at the helm, it is not a good sign, and there is little to suggest that their replacement will be any better. In fact, the new boss can often make the old boss look like a picture of even-handed competence by comparison.

I have spent time in enough countries before and after despotism was replaced by democracy (or an approved equivalent), and all too often the original was preferable to the replacement (from the standpoint of a foreigner, at least).

It all comes under the admonition that you should be careful what you ask for...


BSBD,

Winsor