A Brief Analysis of the Arab Spring and US Policies
The climate which lead to the turmoil in the third world known as the Arab Spring was complex, and involved multilateral connections between poverty, unrest, corruption, and an overall dissatisfaction with government. Perhaps most poignant is the example of Egypt's current iteration of unrest exemplified in the comments made by Egyptian first-grader Ali Ahmed in a now viral interview wherein he describes the current political climate. While only a child he portrays, in succinct language, the nature of the issues in Egypt amid streets teeming with fellow protestors. He states clearly, "We didn't get rid of a military regime to replace it with a fascist theocracy." Ahmed goes on to detail that the social objectives of the revolution, such as economic empowerment, freedom, and social justice have yet to be achieved during Morsi's regime. He complains that there are still no jobs since Mubarak's ousting, and that the type of policing and random jailing which took place during the former dictator's regime continues. Particularly worth mentioning is Ahmed's ethical choice to embrace the fact that although women make up at least half of the population, the government enforces religious edicts which allow a men to beat them, thereby denying half of their constituency basic human rights based on flawed religious sentiments.
This paper bases itself on the preponderance that if and only if the audience is aware of the unsustainable practices of a regime enforcing unmitigated draconian measures against their constituents, that as a methods of self preservation that regime will do all it can to silence the people, acting only in the people's favor as a means of last resort to sustain military power. This is clearly shown by the Morsi regime's ignorance to their constituency, which culminated in the military coup which toppled Morsi, showing that the military force of Egypt had no choice to but turn on its own government and uphold the will of the people in order to keep control as a means of last resort. Furthermore, this paper will assert that first world nations will react to instability in the third world with their own draconian policies, adversely affecting freedom of speech in order to prevent widespread public dissent.
It is not always so simple to understand how a country's infrastructure collapsed. Several mitigating political and market forces converged in Egypt a year prior to the ousting of the Morsi regime, where a scene now familiar to the world played out in response to the act of martyrdom committed by Mohammed Bouazizi and then copied some 22 times around the globe. Perhaps Bouazizi, before setting himself on fire, could not have known his actions would spark what many have called a revolutionary movement, the Arab Spring, however his act of defiance to the government which oppressed him sent a clear message and empowered millions whom beforehand had never been able to seize their desires to rise up. With his sacrifice he legitimized everyone's anger. Bouazizi had been pushed into a corner by the state. In this view, the state is the antagonist to the public's well being; because fruit vendors who had their livelihood seized from them would rather set themselves on fire than live oppressed. Regardless of his intentions, Bouazizi's actions were far more reaching than he may have dreamed, as Hernando de Soto elaborates, "As is so often the case with political martyrs, Mohammed Bouazizi has come to mean different things to different people. To some he's a symbol of resistance to injustice; to others an archetype of the fight against autocracy. Last year the Occupy activists enlisted him as a spiritual ally. It is hard to imagine that the real Bouazizi would have recognised himself in any of these incarnations." (de Soto 1)
Egypt's power struggle is complicated further by a military power which is all too ready to step in and seize control. The military's role in the current situation is interesting in light of the fact that the military had, prior to Mubarak's ousting, been held accountable by protestors for acts against humanity. It is important to note that military leaders quickly saw the tides of the protest turning against the Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi, and so, offered a 48 hour edict through a public channel calling on Morsi to meet the demands of the protestors or diffuse the situation. This presented Morsi the impossible obstacle of turning against his constituents of the Muslim Brotherhood and facing possible assassination, or ignoring the millions of protesters gathering in the capital and thus surrendering the country to military rule. The confluence of these factors ended up playing directly into the hands of the military leaders who seemed to now back the very people who protested against them. Nazes Afroz tells of a 'Perpetual Revolution' in which corrupt regimes rise in the third world only to be stamped out and rise again. The complicated psychology of the masses becomes clear in his writing, "Inept governance, a crumbling economy, an acute fuel crisis, high inflation and extraordinarily high rates of crime across Egypt had already made Morsi and his government extremely unpopular. So at the first anniversary of his assumption of office, his opposition-the same people who started the revolution in 2011 against Mubarak-collected 22 million signatures demanding his resignation. Morsi and the Brotherhood refused to yield power, saying they could only be removed through democratic elections, not coercion.
To Tahrir's protestors, however, Morsi had lost all legitimacy, and they were, in effect, recalling him. The military made a grand entrance over Tahrir Square, with choppers carrying the Egyptian flag and fighter jets creating a heart shape with exhaust trails in the sky.
Egypt's generals, dubbed accomplices in Mubarak-era atrocities by the same protestors two years ago, are now being seen as saviours of democracy." (Afroz 1)
Atrocities aside, in the United States, the government has been steadily reacting to movements like Arab Spring. Since the popular Occupy Wall Street movement, a direct offshoot in solidarity of protestors around the globe, the government has been finding ways to keep tabs on protesters, possibly to prevent widespread chaos the likes of which Egypt has recently experienced in a now annual cycle. Since the patriot act and many other draconian policies instigated against the public in the increasing war on privacy in the name of a fight against terror, more and more rights are being shaved away on a regular basis. Legislation which allows for sweeping wiretaps was passed after 9/11, and in the wake of this type of lawmaking, law enforcement entities have been allowed to operate with marginal oversight and in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security under the auspices of domestic terrorist monitoring.
One such group known as Occupy Phoenix, based in Arizona, became the target of their local law enforcement officials, whom went so far as to send in a plainclothes officer to keep tabs on them and infiltrate their midst. Whether right or wrong, the question is begged; why do police resources need to be used to target activists as if they were terrorists? Is there something threatening about protests that needs to be paid more attention to than other crimes? The crime demographics on activism do not constitute such allocation of resources given that activism is not a criminal activity, however activists are still targeted by law enforcement. Matthew Rothschild writes, "The documents reveal many instances of such misdirected work by law enforcement around the country. The picture they paint of law enforcement in the Phoenix area is a case in point. The police departments there, working with a statewide fusion center and heavily financed by the Department of Homeland Security, devoted tremendous resources to tracking and infiltrating Occupy Phoenix and other activist groups. (Rothschild 1)
While it might spell bad news for activists due to unwanted reconnaissance, the climate is perfect for conservatives to begin pushing for more military spending, showing a direct relationship between policy change and the third world's instability. In this case a climate of fear is used to push a spending agenda while criticizing budgetary decisions which pertain to military spending. Capitalizing on the instability and using fear, pundits attack current agendas and issues such as spying on activist groups are lost in the muddle. Phrasing becomes important to drive these political maneuvers. Assess how Frank Gaffney's article portends doom for our military because of budget cuts, citing specifically Egypt as a catalyst; " A perfect storm is brewing - one that threatens to devastate what is left of America's military and its associated industrial base. This would be a bad idea under the best of circumstances. Events in Egypt and elsewhere around the world make clear that at present and for the foreseeable future, such a prospect invites calamity.
… draconian defense spending cuts mandated by the so-called "sequestration" mechanism and deferred until the third and fourth quarters of Fiscal Year 2013 are just beginning to be felt." (Gaffney 1)
Even the craft of journalism is no longer safe from the ever reaching measures designed to keep the people in check, as is discussed by Brian Fung in response to allegations of the Justice Department snooping on reporters. "…they [NSA] no longer have to force journalists to expose confidential sources. As a national security representative told Lucy Dalglish, director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, "We're not going to subpoena reporters in the future. We don't need to. We know who you're talking to." (Fung 1)
Perhaps Harry Brown's brief article sums up the first world's response to the Arab Spring, as he details our Orwellian prophecy come to life, "We have a perpetual "war" against an ill-defined enemy, allowing the government to keep the populace in a perpetual state of alarm and justify ever-increasing government as a means of security from the invisible enemy.
We have eulogies to civil liberties by liberals and eulogies to small government by conservatives. Yet both parties acquiesce in the loss of our civil liberties and the constant growth of government." (Brown 1)
While the direct comparison between the loss of latitude in America and regime change in Egypt may seem trifling, the question arises; where will the line be drawn between overreaching government entities seeking to self empower at the cost of freedom? If the audience is aware of unsustainable self empowerment within its governing body, that governing body will defend itself against that audience. The consequences of this defense system continue to malignantly manifest as American federal and state governments react to the crisis in the third world, calling into question the ethos of a country that was initially founded on principles of liberty.
Regards,
Jeremy Nation
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Work Cited
Afroz, Nazes. "Perpetual Revolution." Open 20 July 2013. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 17 July 2013.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA336594383&v=2.1&u=cclc_pierce&it=r&p=STND&sw=w
Browne, Harry. "Whatever his intentions, Orwell hit nail on the head. (correspondence)." Insight on the News 4 Feb. 2002: 3. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 17 July 2013.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA82651645&v=2.1&u=cclc_pierce&it=r&p=STND&sw=w
Fung, Brian. "What the AP Subpoena Scandal Means for Your Electronic Privacy." Nationaljournal.com 15 May 2013. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 17 July 2013.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA329904545&v=2.1&u=cclc_pierce&it=r&p=STND&sw=w
Gaffney, Frank. "Defense Threatened by 'Perfect Storm'." Newsmax 12 July 2013. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 17 July 2013.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA336830854&v=2.1&u=cclc_pierce&it=r&p=STND&sw=w
Rothschild, Matthew. "Spying on Occupy Activists." Progressive Jun2013, Vol. 77 Issue 6, p20-27, 7p
Web. 18 July 2013.
Document URL
http://progressive.org/spying-on-ccupy-activists
Soto, Hernando de. "The real Arab spring: middle east protest has its roots not in Islam but in frustrated enterprise." Spectator 13 July 2013: 24+. Infotrac Newsstand. Web. 17 July 2013.
Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA336601620&v=2.1&u=cclc_pierce&it=r&p=STND&sw=w
VISUAL MEDIA SOURCE:
URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4umifTLSII
