On the "fire" that is burning in the Middle East...

Ryan's analogy is apt... damn-near poetic... and worth comment.

Muammar al-Gaddafi is the longest reigning ruler in the last 500 years of Libyan history and the longest reigning ruler of any modern Muslim state... and he must be sweating bullets and crapping his pants right now. His nation is sandwiched between the first two Muslim countries to fall to popular protests, and as the death toll rises from his crackdowns, the prospects for his actually supressing this mess grow smaller and smaller.

Using Libya as an example, we have an opportunity to see what MIGHT happen in the Middle East (admittedly this is a best-case scenario... I'm feeling optomistic this morning):

Gaddafi is removed from power (his well-being a matter of no consequence to my example, mind you), and a power vacuum is created. In ANY Middle Eastern state, this is a definite possiblity (a certainty, in fact) and the chance that a repressive, fundamentalist regime taking hold is very, very real. The UP SIDE is that the people will have seen, first-hand, the power of popular action (the power of vox populi, to use the Latin phrase) and no future regime will be safe from the same protests and riots. So, what are the chances that we will see a "democratic", popularly elected "Islamist" regime? If the freedoms and rights of the population aren't promoted outside the state, then what are the chances they will be protected within the state?

Furthermore... lets take just a moment and look at where these kinds of protests and mass riots are NOT happening?

Iraq, that's where.

The most violent anti-Americans on the face of the planet can't deny that every single Iraqi that wanted to vote since 2004 has had every opportunity to do so... and the Iraqis are the first to say this when the opportunity presents itself. Functional or not, corrupt or not... the Iraqi government is chosen, top to bottom, by the people of Iraq... and they KNOW THIS. They accept it and are willing to make it work. Radicals next to republicans... they are ready and WILLING to do whatever it takes to make the new government work. Everyone from al-Sadr to Malaki are doing what they feel needed to make Iraq a "good place to live".

Perhaps the inherent nature of freedom and liberty will present itself to the people of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, as well?