Will the Arab Spring which is yet fast apace in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria be allowed to degenerate into either Taliban style regimes or Iranian type clergy controlled states? It's a new day in which the United States government presumably is busy behind the scenes procuring outcomes that are both secular and democratic (as opposed to radical and Islamic with proponents of sharia law in control).
I believe that the true Arab Spring would be the return of legitimate government and avoid decay into either despotism or chaos. In so far as new regimes succeed, the regard for the people as the first concern of those who come to power will be an essential marker of legitimacy. Such governments as reach maturity in their legitimacy and its limits will not necessarily be puppets of U.S. interests, but the U.S. will always serve its own interests well that is a respector of legitimate governments.
For an Obama Administration permitted a second term, the temptation will be to forward the interests of international corporations and property rights in Arab lands. For a Republican Administration, it will mean war for any Arab majority state which does not understand it must put minutes on the clock to establish its legitimacy by honoring contracts and continued exploitation of national wealth by international corporations.
The tough part for liberals like myself, is that the United States Government today is the handmaiden of an international economy controlled really by international corporations with little regard for world peace because of the play of the military-industrial complex in not just the United States, but the entire Western world.
A Democratic President by the way slows the growth of Red China's military ascendancy, while a Republican President will cultivate Red China as the enemy and procurer of yet new generations of armaments afforded by the middle class of America, the sleeping giant. The new arms race is underway, and the nuclear armageddon looms again. The armageddon is a fear the military industrial complex needs to put the middle class of America back in the manacles of false prosperity and strident unionism. The task of all war mongers is to put the sleeping middle class back to work.
The task of those who have a new envisioning would be to continue to demilitarize the world before it heats up again. As the United States persists as the major beneficiary of arms sales, this vision will be billed as a pipe dream, especially by those with an income derivative of the military industrial complex. The really creative resouceful administration for the United States would be the one that finds a new way forward.
Keep this nation strong, but do it by building an economy which is not premised on war, but on peace, and then keep the military capable and strong and responsive. Build treaty obligations for all nations and share the wealth of the planet with all the peoples of the Earth, our common home. I've never thought of myself as a Clintonian Democrat, but during William J. Clinton's Presidency, he proved the benefits of a growing the peace economy (although I do not want to get into all that he did foster).
War and its speeded up degradation of the environment should be avoided. What we need is a growth economy predicated on stopping the planet's degradation for the short term benefit of the wealthy of this earth (most of the wealthy being found in despots and capitalists in the extreme with no regard for high ethics which wealth requires of its possessors). I call on the middle class and the youth of this country to foster true economic growth which regards the environment and people of the earth as the new predictor of the success of the United States of America as it continues to proclaim hope for all, and most especially a government of, by, and for the People.
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