Notions

     We have all heard the many jokes about George Bush Jr.’s low IQ and non-existent wits, how his poor knowledge on world affairs cost thousands of Americans lives and billions of dollars and how anyone – including the commentator - could have made a better decision on the Iraqi and Afghani files. Funny were the jokes I admit, but perhaps not quite accurate. The same comic approach is being used to describe Obama’s administration and persona, where not only is the president depicted as being lost and weak, but also as unwitty and not so shrewd when it comes to international affairs. Perhaps analysts and political observers have their right to such an argument, but as an average Arab citizen with some interest in political issues, I concluded that this argument does not hold.     My observation was strengthened after the announcement of the deal struck between the Axis of Evil and  Satan himself on the nuclear file, but of course, name-...

      Revolutions, counter revolutions, toppling autocratic regimes, restoring old regimes, military coups and political Islam revivalism have all been taking place in the Middle East for the past three years. Arab nations are calling for introducing democracy as a political system, a system that must be enforced, by any means or price. The ticket to freedom from tyranny, poverty, exploitation, backwardness, political repression and every ailment that has struck the region since the Islamic days of glory should be the one and only “rule of the people”. Democracy: the magical potion.            The beautiful thing about political thought is that it has been a developing science, growing and changing and taking on new ideals and beliefs in order to justify political practice and systems. Ever since the early Hellenistic civilization, followed by the Romans and the emergence of “modern” religious based empires, toppled...