Hidden hand behind bloody Arab revolution

The epicentre of the Arab Spring, the trembler that has shaken dictatorships in the Arab world, is usually assumed to be the young Tunisian man who set himself alight last December. While there is no doubt that he jolted others into action, it would be naive to solely credit him for kindling the fire of dissent that has engulfed the Arab world.

The West, just like in our clamour for democracy in the 90s, has a hand in the groundswell of resistance sweeping across these countries.

their revolution

The US, for instance, admits it has been funding activists in the Arab world.“...as American officials and others look back at the uprisings of the Arab Spring, they are seeing that the United States’ democracy-building campaigns played a bigger role in fomenting protests than was previously known,” the New York Times wrote in April. Stephen McInerney, director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, said the US offered activists training: “That training did play a role in what ultimately happened, but it was their revolution. We didn’t start it,” he says. No doubt, the Tunisian started it all!