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Thoughts on this Independence Day

Emergent Chaos has a long tradition of posting the American Declaration of Independence here to celebrate the holiday. It’s a good document in many ways. It’s still moving, more than two centuries after it was written. It’s clearly written, and many people can learn from its structured approach to presenting a case. And last but not least, it’s a document celebrating that we all are created equal, with certain inalienable rights. That none of us is a king or a serf by accident of birth, with special rights by those circumstances.

And so today I’d like to talk a little about the extraordinary events in the Arab world over the last six months. When Muhammad Al Bouazizi set himself on fire, it was unlikely that he knew that his actions would set in motion events including the downfall of the Tunisian and Egyptian governments, a civil war in Lybia, and a revolt against King Assad in Syria. (Yes, I know that’s not his official title, but Presidents don’t inherit the title from their fathers.)

It’s easy to assert that these are American values rising up in the Arab world, or that Twitter or Facebook are somehow central. I don’t want to be so facile.

What is happening is that the Egyptians are struggling to force a new reality of law onto their current military government, with a release of protestors, and end to torture of prisoners and especially the sexual abuse of women prisoners. They are working to ensure that they have free and fair elections as soon as possible.

The Libyans are engaged in an all-out civil war. Colonel Khadafi, accused kleptocrat and now wanted war criminal, has lots of money, and repeated NATO attempts to kill him have failed. (I think these are legitimate attempts-he’s a military officer, and killing him as part of a military operation would be a legitimate act of war. If he had a reasonable separation and a military commander, then it would be assassination.)

The Syrians are engaged in an all-out revolt against their King, with little notice or support from the wider world. The same situation applied in Yemen, except their King claimed that title, and he’s now on life support in Saudi Arabia. As an aside, when the only place that will take you in doesn’t let women drive, you’re on the wrong side of history.

So for all this chaos, I’m optimistic for the Arab peoples. Their struggles to build socieities will be hard. They will have detours. Their first attempts to build societies after throwing off their Kings will be troublesome. Much like after we threw out the British, we had our Articles of Confederation, we had our whiskey and Shay’s rebellions, and we even had a civil war over issues that our founding fathers couldn’t hammer out themselves.

So I don’t expect what the Arab states are going through will be simple or easy. But I do know that tens of millions of people now have more say in their future than they did, and that’s a fine thing to celebrate this Independence Day.

One comment on "Thoughts on this Independence Day"

  • Calandale says:

    By your argument for military operation vs. assassination,
    since the US President is commander in chief, it is acceptable
    to kill such as a military operation – even if the country/actors
    involve deny any state of war (as the US has done in Libya to
    avoid invoking the war powers act).

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