News Nuggets 548

Anemones and soft corals in Svalbard, Norway's arctic archipelago. From National Geographic.

Egypt Inspires Iranian Protesters; 2nd Day of Violent Clashes in Bahrain, Yemen from the Washington Post
"Violent protests have erupted in Iran, Yemen and Bahrain as the revolutionary fervor unleashed by the toppling of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ripples across the Middle East, propelling people onto the streets to demand change from a spectrum of autocratic regimes."

A related item:
Arrests and Deaths as Egypt Protest Spreads Across Middle East from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Iranians defy government ban to join rally in Tehran, with demonstrations and street clashes in Bahrain and Yemen."

Here's How the Rest of the Middle East Is Doing (Caitlin Dickson) from the Atlantic
"Certainly there may be limits to how far protest-fever will spread. But right now the Middle East is getting a good dose of demonstrations, as some of the smallest and most repressed nations start to question their rulers and demand a new kind of government. Let's check in with some of these countries and see how they're doing, and how serious the unrest is looking."

A Tunisian-Egyptian Link That Shook Arab History from the New York Times
"The exchange on Facebook was part of a remarkable two-year collaboration that has given birth to a new force in the Arab world — a pan-Arab youth movement dedicated to spreading democracy in a region without it."
A VERY interesting look at how Tunisian and Egyptian protests evolved together.

On Egypt, Obama Played Hand Well, if Not Always Steadily from the Editorial Board of the Boston Globe
"FOR HIS performance during the people-power uprising in Egypt, President Obama ought to be judged the way an Olympic diver is: not only by execution but also by the dive’s degree of difficulty. Because he inherited from his last four predecessors a close collaboration with the now-deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Obama had to be both lucky and skillful to avoid a disastrous belly-flop."
This sentiment very much captures my own view.  There were a million ways to get it wrong and only a handful of ways to avert really bad outcomes -- and Obama averted most of the worst really bad outcomes.

Winners and Losers of the Revolution (Stephen Walt) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Is Egypt's revolution bad news for Palestine and the Muslim Brotherhood?"

The Messy Failure of the Freedom Agenda (Jennifer Wiens) from NPR
"Iraq is still struggling, years later. Meanwhile, events in Egypt and Tunisia show democracy may indeed be spreading in the Middle East now, just as Dubya wanted. But it's coming from the people actually living there, from the floor up, not from outside in."

Speaking of the fruits of said agenda:
Iraqi Protesters Seek Not a New Regime, but Jobs from the New York Times
"Iraq would seem to have virtually every ingredient for upheaval: crippling poverty, few good jobs, creaky public services, anger at an entrenched political elite and thousands of young people who meet online to vent their grievances and organize protests. But the revolution has not come to Iraq. Not yet, at least."
But the revolution WILL come here.  Why?  Because, rather than setting up a truly democratic gov't in Iraq, Bush basically set up a gov't that (in most ways of substance) resembles all the other regimes in the region: incompetent, unresponsive, corrupt, unstable, and, in most of the ways that matter, failing to provide its people any real future.  The fact that the gov't was imposed by the US dramatically undercuts any legitimacy it might have obtained from the flawed elections that they held.  As Thomas Friedman has rightly noted, Arab societies will have strong democracies only when the population can really take OWNERSHIP of their gov'ts.  Bush's approach robbed them of this basic level of ownership and accountability. 

Mubarak, Karzai, and America (Dexter Filkins) from the New Yorker
"Afghanistan is a long way from Egypt, and is a very different place, but the most important lesson flowing from Tahrir Square seems directly relevant to the American predicament in Central Asia: The quality of governance practiced by our allies matters, and we ignore it at our peril."

Will Revolution Spread to Pakistan? (Declan Walsh) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The country is ripe for revolt, though it would mean ousting the army."
I think so -- but the end result will be a Taliban-type gov't -- not multi-party democracy.  I suspect Pakistan is about to head into a very dark period that will leave it an economic, social, political, (and yet over-populated) religious extremist backwater.

A Tahrir effect in Kabul? from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Is this the fifth wave now, an Arab or even a "Muslim" one? It is only natural that journalists -- and other people -- wonder whether something like in Tunisia and Egypt might also happen in Afghanistan."

Postcard from Cairo, Part 2 (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"when young Egyptians looked around the region and asked: Who is with us in this quest and who is not?, the two big countries they knew were against them were Israel and Saudi Arabia. Sad. The children of Egypt were having their liberation moment and the children of Israel decided to side with Pharaoh – right to the very end."

Love and Revolution in Egypt (Jenna Krajeski) from the New Yorker
"There is much talk about a “marriage crisis” in Egypt—low employment rates lead to low matrimonial rates—and the protesters in Tahrir Square were, indirectly at least, marching against it. Lack of jobs was high on their list of grievances. Many of those I interviewed said that getting married and having a family were things they dreamed of most in a post-Mubarak Egypt."

In One Slice of a New Egypt, Few Are Focusing on Religion (Anthony Shadid) from the New York Times
"A generation ago, Ahmed Mitwalli’s parents were Islamists in this neighborhood along the Nile once nicknamed the Islamic Republic of Imbaba. But their son is not, and his convictions, echoed in the cauldron of frustrations of one of the world’s most crowded quarters, suggest why the Muslim Brotherhood is not driving Egypt’s nascent revolution."

The Misleading Metaphor of Decline (Joseph Nye) from RealClearWorld"Is the United States in decline? Many Americans think so, and they are not alone. A recent Pew poll showed that pluralities in 13 of 25 countries believe that China will replace the U.S. as the world's leading superpower. But describing the future of power as inevitable American decline is both misleading and dangerous if it encourages China to engage in adventurous policies or the U.S. to overreact out of fear. How would we know if the declinists are correct or not? First, one must beware of misleading metaphors of organic decline. Nations are not like humans with predictable life spans."

How America is Doing Compared to the Rest of the World from the Washington Post
"The United States remains the world's leading nation - economically, politically and militarily. New partners and competitors are rising fast but in complicated ways. Most of these nations are market democracies, with civilian control of the military. The real question is not whether they will catch up - many will - but whether the United States can continue to grow in a way that lifts all boats, and whether it can help shape an emerging global order that avoids conflict and encourages greater freedom."

'Punisher' Gets Its First Battlefield Tests from Army Times
"The XM25 has changed the battlefield with only 55 rounds, and earned a new name among soldiers. They call it “the Punisher.” … “No longer can the enemy shoot at American forces, then hide behind something,” said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller of Program Executive Office Soldier. “This is a revolutionary weapon. This is a game-changer.”"
Now, I'll have to say new technology often fascinates me.  Guns, on the other hand, usually don't.  But this one seems to be having real implications on the battlefield and, who knows, maybe create a context where we can leave sooner rather than later. Links HERE and HERE will give you a better sense of what this weapon does.

The Experience Economy (David Brooks) from the New York Times
Tyler Cowen’s e-book, “The Great Stagnation,” has become the most debated nonfiction book so far this year. Cowen’s core point is that up until sometime around 1974, the American economy was able to experience awesome growth by harvesting low-hanging fruit. … Cowen’s data on these slowdowns are compelling and have withstood the scrutiny of the online reviewers. He argues that our society, for the moment, has hit a technological plateau."

Reagan and Reality (Bob Herbert) from the New York Times
"Early in Eugene Jarecki’s documentary, “Reagan,” you hear the voice of Ronald Reagan saying, “Someday it might be worthwhile to find out how images are created — and even more worthwhile to learn how false images come into being.” Indeed. The image that many, perhaps most, Americans have of the nation’s 40th president is largely manufactured."

Will the GOP Embrace Immigration Reform or Continue to Ostracize Key Voters? (Harold Meyerson) from the Washington Post
"Read the census data that have been coming out over the past couple weeks and you're compelled to a stark conclusion: Either the Republican Party changes totally, or it has a rendezvous with extinction."

Conservatives Won't Let Poor Mitt Romney Off the Hook on Health Care (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"Conservatives are insistent that Romney explain his previous support for the individual mandate, in order to prove he's not ideologically suspect, but when he does try to explain it, he only reinforces the sense that he's ideologically malleable and opportunistic."

The GOP's Enormous, Gaping 2012 Vacuum (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"If you want to declare a winner from CPAC, the annual conservative convention that wrapped up over the weekend, a good case could be made for Barack Obama, mainly because the proceedings underscored the degree to which every likely GOP presidential candidate has serious deficiencies."

Should Republicans Fret Over Their Presidential Field? Answer: Yes (Nate Silver) from FiveThirtyEight
"A lot will change between now and November, including the perceptions toward each of the Republican candidates. The early evidence, however, suggests that this year’s Republican field may in fact be quite weak by the standards of recent election cycles."