Editorial
Deepening uncertainty in ME
Arab Spring headed for autumn?
Forces loyal to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad have been shelling a small town near the border with Turkey, forcing its residents to flee to safety on the other side. The operation demonstrates, four months into the unrest in Syria, the brutality of the regime in trying to suppress the popular movement for political change. In Libya, despite all the NATO bombing to force Muammar Gaddafi from power, the regime, despite its weakened nature, remains in place. NATO bombing has just resulted in more civilians dying, which raises the critical question of whether all this international pressure on Gaddafi is yielding the results the West had earlier thought it would. Meanwhile, in Morocco, King Muhammad's offer of reforms has left no one impressed. His detractors' argument that earlier reforms in the country's 400-year history have been superficial cannot be dismissed out of hand. Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh has fled to Saudi Arabia.
Much as the world is enthused by the Arab Spring, the fact remains that the changes one would have liked to see in the Middle East have come only half way. So far, the tide of change has yielded results in Tunisia and Egypt, though in the latter case the future remains uncertain. The military authorities, seemingly believing in their own approach to the future, have so far failed to take broad public opinion and the political classes into confidence. But if post-Mubarak Egypt is yet finding its way around, conditions in Syria and Libya are definitely horrendous. Libyans are now caught in a civil war, with neither the regime nor the rebels able to claim victory. NATO keeps pounding away, with no idea as to when these raids will end. It is innocent Libyans who die. Those who live confront an apocalyptic future. In Syria, the West is yet to make up its mind beyond sounding out warnings at intervals.
The Arab Spring is in danger of drawing itself out into a long, bitter autumn. Conscience is in short supply in Damascus and Tripoli. NATO's killing of Libyan civilians demonstrates an absence of moral dimensions in internationalism.
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