Sources in Washington tell me that the Obama administration's experts have "identified" the causes of the Arab revolt. But their diagnosis amounts to a rehash of old clichés about poverty, Islam and hostility toward Israel and America -- none of which applies to Oman.Do read about what protests in Oman aren't about. And ponder what the rest of the Arab and Persian worlds (and maybe worlds beyond these?) might be striving against:
What we see in the greater Mideast is a political upheaval, not an economic revolt. People are fed up with being treated as subjects of a pharaoh, sultan, emir, sheik or "supreme guide." They want a new relationship with their governments, based on respect for the citizen.
Seriously, does anyone really think that if a Palestinian state was set up tomorrow that the unrest in the Moslem world would subside the next week? That's just one of the misconceptions Taheri describes. They also aren't being engineered by Iran or al Qaeda.
Not that these revolts against being subjects can't lead to Islamism or despotism in a different form or after a decent interval of hope. But they aren't naturally heading that way. That's where we come in. We need to help them achieve actual democracy as the basic answer to their desire to end being treated as subjects.
