Surprised?

Pejman Yousefzadeh tells why no one should be surprised at the thirst for democracy in the Middle East. Yousefzadeh opens his article with the fall of the Berlin Wall, linking that event to the current Middle East situation. Here is a little some thing from the article for the whiners and hand wringers of the left:

Of course, the people of the Middle East have been emboldened to fight back against the dictators of the region by American efforts to oust both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. Lebanese militant leader Walid Jumblatt -- who in the past was known for his vehemently anti-American statements -- directly credits the removal of Saddam Hussein and the successful Iraqi elections for a transitional government with having inspired the movement for democracy across the Middle East. In Lebanon, pro-democracy demonstrators greeted the attempts of Syrian President Bashar Assad to offer half-measures designed to placate demands for a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon by taunting him with slogans like "Bush sends his greetings!" -- a clear reference to the possibility that the United States may undertake to free the Lebanese people via military power if Syria does not withdraw. While there is almost no chance of such a thing happening, it is more than a little noteworthy that the Lebanese demonstrators seem gleeful at the prospect of American liberation -- or at the very least willing and clever enough to use the threat of American military might to force Syria to fully withdraw from Lebanon. And Assad seems terrified -- in a recent comment to the Turkish press, Assad asked his interviewer to "Please send this message: I am not Saddam Hussein. I want to cooperate." He should want to cooperate; the international coalition against Assad includes states like Saudi Arabia -- which historically has been more than willing to cooperate with the region's thugs and murderers so long as its own survival was ensured. And now, with both international forces and domestic upheaval threatening to transform Middle Eastern political and social institutions, the United States has decided to augment its support of Iranian democratic reformers as well; thereby increasing the creative tension in the region that may lead to genuine liberalization in the Middle East as a whole.

All in all a very interesting and timely article. - Sailor