Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia

Image via WikipediaArab Focus, Microfinance Focus

Los Angeles Times: In Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, protesters take to streets: protesters inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia take part in street marches..... The tumult in a region normally kept tranquil under the heavy-handed security of conservative Gulf regimes underscored the widening reverberations of new pro-democracy movements in the Middle East ...... the protesters' numbers have been small ..... thousands more people who turned out for the main scheduled march were walking quietly along the sidewalks toward Azadi Square ...... clashes that in some cases involved young demonstrators beating security personnel ...... west of Imam Hussein Square ..... "The police support us, the Iranians support us." ...... "We would like to stress that Feb. 14 is only the beginning. The road may be long and the rallies may continue for days and weeks, but if a people one day chooses life, then destiny will respond." ...... Yemen, meanwhile, was undergoing its fourth straight days of protests ..... Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president for more than 30 years 

A political revolution is all about momentum. Right now there is momentum. The right thing to do is to stoke the fire. Get the people out into the streets. An amazing regional level political clarity has been achieved. This can not be let go to waste. 2011 is 1989. Two successes in a row are a lot of momentum. This has to be put to good use. Finally Iran's time has come too.

Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

Los Angeles Times: Egypt military dissolves parliament, suspends constitution: calling for elections within six months ..... the military, the most respected institution in the nation, was edging toward forming a credible democracy ..... the army left intact the ex-president's Council of Ministers to run the government. ...... Cars honked and drove around the city hub for the first time in more than two weeks as scores of soldiers fanned out into the remaining tent cities on the square and unceremoniously tore them down...... several hundred police officers held a protest of their own in front of the Interior Ministry demanding higher salaries, access to government medical care and rehiring of officers fired for disciplinary or administrative violations.

Related articles

Image via Wikipedia

• Protests heating up in Bahrain, Yemen & Iran (holykaw.alltop.com)
• Resistance spreads in Iran, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Libya (dailykos.com)
• Mideast Scrambles as Protests Spread (newser.com)
• Mideast nations brace for Egypt spillover (msnbc.msn.com)
• Factbox: Reaction to fall of Mubarak around Middle East (reuters.com)
• You: Middle East nations scramble to contain unrest (latimes.com)
• Fallout from Egypt being felt in region (salon.com)
• Analysis: Fallout from Egypt being felt in region (sfgate.com)
• Other Arab Nations Taking Cue From Egypt - NPR (news.google.com)
• Iran next? (politics.ie)

Egypt: Suleiman Is Not An Option

Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Egypt: The Army May Not Take Over
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

Image via WikipediaThe goal of the revolution is regime change. The goal is a total ouster from power of people who are in power. Mubarak has to vacate the scene, and he has to take his entire entourage with him.

Mubarak is not an option. The military is not an option. Suleiman - I don't even know what he looks like and would like to keep it that way - is not an option.

This is a revolution, people. It will settle for nothing less than a total reshaping of Egyptian politics. Democracy's time has finally come, and no dictator or the dicatator's minion is going go get in the way.

Out, Mubarak, out. Take your entourage with you. Don't let the door hit you on your way out.

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• The Suleiman Problem: Egypt's Transitional Figure Won't Transition (time.com)
• Analyst: Military Action against Egypt's President 'Last Option' - Voice of America (news.google.com)
• Suleiman: When Egypt's Transitional Figure Won't Transition (time.com)
• You: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood insists departure of Mubarak (nation.com.pk)
• Egypt crisis: government claim it has a timetable for transferring power (telegraph.co.uk)
• Mubarak Won't Take Medical Leave in Germany, Suleiman Says (businessweek.com)
• Suleiman: America's new man in Egypt (rt.com)
• Egypt Protesters Defiant after VP's Warning (cbsnews.com)

Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged

Image via WikipediaThe US is uniquely positioned to conclude the War On Terror in 2011. The Cold War lasted decades. If we play our cards right, the War On Terror will have only lasted a decade. And Barack Obama might qualify for yet another Nobel Peace Prize.

The way the War On Terror concludes is when every Arab country has been turned into a modern democracy. The roadmap is simple. People come out into the streets and shut the country down completely until the dictator vacates the seat of power. They don't have to leave the country. They just have to vacate the seat of power without engaging in any bloodshed. Then an interim government takes over. That cabinet has one year to hold elections to a constituent assembly. And that's it.

Where the US federal government comes in is there is no other entity that has the option to stay deeply engaged with all levels of the state apparatus in these countries. The idea is to stay neutral politically in the beginning, but make sure there is no bloodshed. And then once the streets have boiled over and achieved tipping point, you call for the dictator's ouster in no unclear terms. You don't incite the street protests. You don't help escalate it. But once they hit that tipping point, you stand on the side of democracy. The clearer stand you take, less bloodshed there will be, and smoother the transitions will be in those countries.

This is not the time to stay neutral. Revolution is not a spectator sport, not for those braving the streets, not for the President Of The United States, not for the Vice President Of The United States, not for the US Secretary Of State.

This momentum that took centuries to build can not be wasted. This is our opportunity to turn the tables across the Arab world. If the sexism in the Arab world has been bothering you, now is the time to act. A country that becomes a democracy starts taking steps to curb all that sexism.

Egypt: The Army May Not Take Over
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

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• Arab Focus, Microfinance Focus (technbiz.blogspot.com)
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• Lexington: Was George Bush right? (economist.com)
• Now the Arab world is teaching the West about democracy (newstatesman.com)
• Why the US Fears Arab Democracy (alternet.org)
• How U.S. can back Mideast reform (politico.com)
• What Israel fears in Egypt - Washington Post (news.google.com)
• Mideast Allies: "U.S. Go Easy on Egypt" (cbsnews.com)
• Mideast allies: 'US go easy on Egypt' (sfgate.com)