In 2011, many seemed to forget the events that had taken place over the previous 50 years. Those who were denounced as bloodthirsty dictators, oppressing their own people, were saluted as the great saviours of those very people they later targeted. The leaders of the ‘free’ world, authors promoting liberal democratic values, together with the so-called 'independent media' supported the Iranian Islamic Revolution, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s rise to power and Saddam Hussein launching war against neighbouring Iran. In 2011, if one showed prudence in praising the arming of Libyan rebels, or recalled the training and arming of Islamist groups in Afghanistan to counter the Soviet threat, one would have been called a cynic. Yet, today, we see that democracy and equality were not achieved through mediatic revolutions in one year in the Middle East, but rather as a result of a long and painful process, as in all other major changes in history. Today, as we look back and evaluate the past 40 years, we see what we would have seen then: progress, but also the same mistakes eternally repeated.
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Jonathan Rashad
Author: Ariane Tabatabai
