Matters have been brewing for years: the young are educated, traveled and aware of the outside world. They have no jobs or menial jobs far beneath their education or skills. The system, i.e., governmental structure, does not provide for mobility. This volatile mixture has exploded throughout the Middle-East:
Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain; it has essentially infected the entire region including Saudi Arabia and Iran. The lone exception is Israel. CNN, t.v., cell phones and the internet, allow the outside world to attest to the turmoil. The basics are simple: mass protests calling for change, and for those in power to step down. Technology has enabled mass protests to be assembled with relative ease. The problem is, there is no plug-and-play form of government available to replace existing potentates.
Egypt has managed to escape the perils of anarchy and chaos to date by the independence of it's military. Perhaps Egypt's military leaders are looking toward Turkey for direction. The Turkish military's allegiance is the Constitution and not to the, or a President, King or other potentate. Unfortunately, Turkey stands alone in it's military allegiance in the region, hence there is scant chance, except to the extent Egypt looks to Turkey as example, that the other Middle-East nations will escape the destruction and death associated with civil war. A U.S. General, now retired, once made statements to the affect that cities would be bombed back to the dark ages. The United States Civil War ( 1861-1865 ) set U.S. society and the economy back 75 years. Existing and future civil wars in the Middle-East will set things and living conditions back 75 to 100 years. Revolutionary transition is extremely costly. Iraq is a modern example: most civil structures, including power plants, water and sewer utilities, communications facilities, bridges, roadways, hospitals and the like, existing prior to 2002, have been damaged or destroyed. It will take billions and years to rebuild. Libya, Syria and other Middle-East nations in turmoil face the same prospect: billions and years to rebuild.
Israel has been facing the vacuous government dilemma for 50 years: who speaks for the Palestinian tribes and groups ? No monolithic Palestinian government has emerged; so who does Israel engage with to insure the security of it's people ? The current turmoil in the region presents the same issue. The protests and protesters have pro-offered no plug-and-play government structure to govern their respective nations or regions once the existing potentates are overthrown. Without an agreed and accepted monolithic government structure, policies, procedures and laws, anarchy and chaos rule. Anarchy and chaos are leaps backward rather then forward, as factions fight factions for control while civilian capital and social structures are being destroyed and thousands are killed in the process.
Matters, death and destruction, are made worse for the indigenous populations by outside military intervention. Outside military intervention dramatically escalates damage to the physical infrastructure of any nation or country , and the killing of civilian populations. Those in power, including the U.S., do not simply leave without a fight. There have been few rational transitions of power between disparate ideologies or leaders.; bloodshed is inevitable. The international community ( U.N. ) bares responsibility for the aggravation of conditions and turmoil in the Middle-East. Instead of having developed strategies, structures and teams to deal with leadership transitions, as was done to assist in the formation of Israel circa 1947-1950, the U.N. has chosen to use military force. This 17th century myopia is edging western society to the verge of collapse. The Middle -East was the cradle of Western civilization and it my well turn out to be the death of it.
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