Middle East in turmoil

Crisis what crisis? If I hear the word revolution (or thawra) one more time I think I will engage in high projectile vomiting. If I may paraphrase al-Masri Al-Yowm (Egyptian daily) the revolution in that country still has some way to go. Not many partner. I may be in danger of being conditioned by so-called "People's" revolutions of the 20th century, but who ever heard of a revolution that leaves the Field Marshal/defence minister still in place and now more obviously in charge? The revolution has a kind of substance in Libya, although a shoot out for regional and tribal dominance fuelled (ouch) by petroleum ambitions (those of the LIBYANS!) seems closer to the money (as it were). Has anybody talked any sense among the western opinionistas since the Arab spring first saw the light of day? Not too many, though I would cite the attractive presentation of Anita McNought on Al-Jazeera English who on April 11 was the first person I heard say simply that the fight in Libya is a fight for life, literally, on the part of the Qadaffi family and their erstwhile green comrades in Benghazi. What's bothering me is that the so-called Arab democracy wave/spring/awakening becomes a western conflict with flaky Arab state support, just like yesteryear.This is becoming Iraq circa 1992-2002, with Benghazi increasingly shaping up to be the protected northern Kurdish regional government…….) Next stop ground troops (first they came as advisors).....Then there is the current Gulf role...more than ignoring sanctions as they did in the 90s ---we now have a few Qatari planes and the UAE still standing by with their US pilots....

Here is a link to something that gives a different spin on what's happening within the Gulf

http://partrickmideast.org/archive.html