Not much has been said here about the situation in the Middle East, so I wanted to start a thread to see what others thoughts were.

It all started with the uprising in Tunisia last December, eventually leading to the removal of their President from power. From there it sparked major uprisings in Egypt and Libya, and many more major protests in Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Syria and Yemen. Even minor incidents occurred in Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Western Sahara. (Thanks to Wikipedia for the list).

The major recent development is the passing of a UN resolution creating a no-fly zone over Libya, and already this has sparked international confrontations.

What really interests me in this overall situation is the impact the internet has had on the situations. Not only was it used as a way of organizing the uprisings, it also provided the people in those countries a more honest view of the rest of the world allowing them to see the injustices in their own countries better. The way these events are unfolding is vastly different then past national revolutions, due to how accessible the internet has made communications with outsiders. No longer do we have to rely on spies for reports on events in countries like these, the people involved are able to tell their own story, in some cases live as events unfold.

Between the events in Japan with the disaster, and the Middle East, it's been very eye opening to me to see the difference between first hand reports, and the reports regurgitated by the journalism world.

Politically, I'm glad to see events unfold the way they are, vs the invasion of Iraq a number of years ago. If we (as the US) wants to see democracy spread, we need to let it happen directed by the people in the nations, instead of trying to force it as part of an invasion and later handover. By letting the people in the area take control of their own destiny, we allow them to mirror our own revolution when the rule of the British was broken. I believe this is the way to ensure that people in the area will have more respect, and less resentment towards us.