THE ROLE OF UNITED STATES IN ARAB CHAOS

           The events in the Arab world will contribute greatly to the democracy in the Muslim world. The issues raised will help them to progress, bringing with it the opportunity for change and improvement. These changes will not influence only the Arab world but have an effect on the whole interdependent global world.

            The changes are important from two perspectives. It is important in terms of democracy and development and in terms of America’s role in the Arab world and the Middle East. It is crucial to understand this important and fundamental uprising and how it results in the formation of a democracy. One of the key questions I have contemplated and am still asking is why it all happened so suddenly, significantly  and at the same time in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Algeria. During the cold war there was a domino theory of communism and we can assume the same domino theory applies to democracy. Initial thoughts were the influences of America where each finger of this nation’s invisible hand poked one country. Looking at it more closely you have to consider Mubarek’s usefulness in the Middle East from America’s perspective. He has been a good ally in the Middle East enabling America to implement their policies, so why should they want to topple his administration?

            Time alone resolves situations so we will leave this question to be answered by the passage of  time. The second important thing is the influence of the uprising for democracy, development and political consciousness. Both Mubarek and Gaddafi have been in power for decades, unanswerable to their people for years and their complete absence of loyalty has fuelled the situation. The recent rebellions shows that any dictatorship can be questioned and deposed and that the collective voice of the people can prevail in a political atmosphere. Questioning governments will provide more accountability, approachability and awareness. Reactions have already been seen, for example Saudi Arabia proactively introduced some new policies such as child benefit and unemployment benefit. This proves that reactions may cause developments.

            Needless to say, the United States (US) took advantage of this unfolding state of affairs to oversee and try to police the situation. It warned of dictators such as Mubarek and Gaddafi and asked them to step down and listen to their citizens. Likewise, Cameron also made same comments. This inspires my question: Did they listen equally to their citizens when tuition fees were raised or when society reacted to the war in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Another question; does America intervene because it believes in democracy or does it intervene because of it’s desire to control the wealth achieved from oil? With regards to the British nation’s involvement with the colonisation of Africa and Britain’s decision to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan – was this to promote democracy or was there an ulterior motive? Today in the Ivory coast, Zimbabwe and Burma undemocratic politics are in operation and people are killed. Why is America not so keen to intervene there but very keen to exert it’s presence in the Arab world?

To summarise, the most important and biggest step towards the development and success of the economic, political and social aspects of the Arab world is the need to depose the dictators and let the people have their say. The positive concept of democracy is promoted by America and Western countries.  America has always manifested it’s priority as a democracy although peace, prosperity and democracy are all coded propaganda concepts.