What are your hopes and fears? What are you hearing from others? Will Egypt and Tunisia and any which follow in this wave go down the route of Indonesia, which overthrew a pro-American dictator in the 1990s only to emerge as a vibrant democracy? Or will Iran's 1979 revolution be the model.
And what of the ethics of the issue? Can the U.S. pursue its interests, defined realistically as stability in the flow of oil, avoiding major realignments (i.e., with Tehran, for instance) and civil wars, and of course the survival of the Camp David accords, without being hypocritical?
As a Middle Eastern Studies major, these are indeed very exciting times to be living in. Of course I am thrilled about the popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, but I am not without my reservations. It seems that both countries, for now at least, have avoided spiraling into uncontrollable instability, as Libya increasingly looks like it will. So perhaps those worries can be shelved for the moment. However, there still exists the concern over what role Islamists will play in the aftermath of the revolutions in these countries. A senior official from the Muslim Brotherhood stated that they will not put forth a candidate in the upcoming elections, but the truth of this remains to be seen. And this is also not to say that they won't put forth a candidate in the next elections, after people become dissatisfied with whichever leader they choose. This was, in fact, the greatest concern of an Egyptian man I spoke to in Astoria's Little Egypt community: that people will quickly become disillusioned with the pace of change (like Obama supporters in the US), and thus cause further discontent. I remain, for the time being, a cautious optimist, for Tunisia and Egypt, at least. It seems it might already be too late for Bahrain and Libya. --Abigail
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