Henry Kissinger: Democracy in the Muslim Middle East Is Wishful Thinking

I'm no friend of Henry Kissinger, but his analysis of the turmoil gripping the Middle East is entirely in accord with the message of this blog over the past two months:

"Speaking at IHS's CERA's annual energy conference, Kissinger said most media reports have indicated the Mideast protests should result in a relative peaceful transition to more democratic regimes.

Most experts speaking at the conference this week have said that while turmoil and change may come to the Middle East, the end result should be positive for the whole region and that oil supplies should remain stable.

While Kissinger made no prediction on the fate of Middle East oil, he threw cold water on the idea that the transition of power in the region would lead to a new era of democracy there.

'That's wishful thinking,' said Kissinger, who as secretary of state in 1973 helped end the war between Israel, Egypt and Syria and largely shaped the current political makeup of the Middle East. 'There's evidence of rejection of the previous model, but no evidence of what the new model will be.'"

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Oil-industry-gets-Middle-East-cnnm-2433156481.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=

Indeed, the overthrow of Egypt's Mubarak had little to do with "democracy", as much of the media would have us believe, but rather entails a conflict between haves and have-nots, with the have-nots shackled to a life of squalor.

Want proof? A "Million Woman March" on Tuesday, International Women's Day, demanding "fair and equal opportunity for all Egyptian citizens -- beyond gender, religion or class," brought less than a thousand persons to Tahrir Square and quickly degenerated into a shouting match. On Wednesday, a Muslim mob attacked Christian Copts protesting the burning of a Cairo church, resulting in the death of 11 people.

Libya? It is a tribal feud, having nothing to do with democracy, in which the privileged Gaddafa, Qaddafi's tribe, and the Warfalla, are fighting those seeking a larger share of the pie. The Gaddafa and the Warfalla, out to preserve their entitlement, couldn't give a fig about Qaddafi's sponsorship of terror or human rights atrocities.

Meanwhile, as the rebels lose ground to Qaddafi's armor and attack helicopters, Obama promises us that the United States is "slowly tightening the noose" on Qaddafi (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_us/us_obama), the author of the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103, with the emphasis on "slowly" . . .