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The Situational Failure of the Arab Spring

Omar Alansari-Kreger

In the abstract, the primary flaw with the Arab Spring is that it lacked an effective
directional blueprint; that is the primary reason why it has resulted in a complete failure.
What started as public reform protestations transformed into cries for revolution as
dictatorial power structures attempted to exterminate dissenting unrest. The dictatorial
regimes failed to effectively balance proper damage control and arrogantly believed that
they could control their populations from the palm of their respective hands. Each Arab
nation has been repressed by some kind of authoritarian/dictatorial force and as a result
that naturally created opposing political movements under the radar; for example, the
natural opponent to the staunch secularist materializes in the form of the religious
fundamentalist.
Why wasnt there a democratic unilateralist movement anywhere in the Arab
Spring? Isnt it necessary to redesign the makings of the political process before taking
part in it altogether? That is the fundamental source of the problem. Competing interests
on all sides of the spectrum sought to manipulate the revolution as a means of
implementing their corresponding agendas on the national level; the staunch secularist
and the religious fundamentalist didnt have any regard for the reinstitution of open
ended democracy for their people, but sought only to accessorize the fact of the latter to
affirmatively secure power. That is why the Arab Spring is a complete failure; in
reiteration to that clause that is classified as having no structural direction combined
together with the complete absence of a democratic unilateralist movement.
In the end, shouldnt the revolutionary interim period transform into an equal
opportunity arena where political parties can petition their populations for a majority
vote? In most Arab nations in addition to much of the developing world, the very idea of
democracy stands as an alien concept and as a direct implication of that
reformists/revolutionaries are transformed into dictatorial tyrants and the dictatorial
tyrants become the reformists/revolutionaries all over again! Nonetheless, in the post
Arab Spring world it shouldnt be too surprising to discover that the succeeding
governments that replaced the proverbial old guard are all overwhelmingly aligned with
the United States. In effect a power transfer ensued replacing stone walled dictatorial
politics with outsourced moderated pragmatism that virtually bends to the wishes of
Washington D.C. in addition to all of its international cronies. That speaks of a controlled
intelligence operation that eliminates any impeding opposition that is posed against the
geo-political interests of the worlds sole superpower.
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In Bahrain (Yemen also stands as a pristine example), where a genuine Arab
Spring Movement emerged, the revolutionaries wanted to transform a nepotistic
monarchy into the Gulfs first representative democracy yet they were silenced beneath
a media blackout and now the world has all but forgotten about their plight and struggle.
From Washingtons point of view, supporting a grassroots democracy movement
against a friendly monarchical regime that has hosted the U.S. Navys Fifth Fleet for
decades while refining Saudi crude oil does not seem to be a very smart move to make;
when the Saudis control a significant proportion of the U.S. economy (the Saudi
ambassador receives Secret Service Protection) the last thing you want to do is piss
them off which means that the pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain never had a
chance. Obviously, that is a blatant indication of a world predominated by sadists.
Nonetheless, those dictatorial strongmen, such as Mubarak, begin to feel that they are
indispensible to the region and start making their own demands against the same
international power vacuum that keeps them in power in the first place which is the
same reason why they become regional liabilities.