The Domino Effect of Egypt

Arab leaders in the Middle East and Africa are afraid that the events currently going on in Egypt are going to spread to other countries.  Egypt wasn’t the first country to set off the series of dominos, that was Tunisia. Those protests then spread to Egypt, but to understand why these protests are spreading so quickly you must understand that many countries in this region share the same characteristics: young populations, poverty, unemployment, suppression of human rights, and leaders that have been in power for decades.  Yemen is the perfect example of this domino effect.  Already civil unrest has spread there against the leader who has been in power for over 30 years.  In Jordan, the people began by asking for food, but now are protesting for a new government.  Lybia looks to be another country poised to fall in this domino effect.  They have a leader that has been in power for over 40 years, but he is trying to prevent his downfall by cutting taxes and other small things to placate his people.  Islamic Fundamentalist groups are the driving force behind almost all of these protests, they are well organized and ready to come into power.  The question many are asking is "Is this a good thing?"  Only time will tell.

I am torn when looking at this situation.  These revolutions need to happen, these leaders have clung to power for too long.  There is a reason we vote for a new president every four years.  Change in leadership is good.  Without that change dictatorships come into power, they forget that the only reason they rule the people of their country is because the people let them rule in the first place.  These leaders have forgotten this and have forsaken the people of the countries they run.  Then I think about this situation on a larger scale, and what implications these revolutions could have for the rest of the world.  Looking just at that specific region of the world there is Israel to think about.  If the Islamic Fundamentalist groups organizing these protests do come into power Israel would be in trouble.  The Muslim world does not get along with Israel, there’s proof enough of that in the Six-Day War.  Putting Fundamentalist Islamic leaders in charge of these protesting countries could lead to a lot of future problems, maybe even war.  Then I thought about what these changes in leadership would mean for the United States.  I’m afraid successful revolutions would be a problem for America.  These Fundamentalist Muslims do not like America any more than they like Israel, so while there may not be direct consequences, there still would be a great potential for increased tensions with the U.S. and the countries of the Middle East.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/41359553#41359553