The Spectator of March 2030 will wonder how the immense, mature, formidable, intelligent, capable, rational western society of 2011 got itself into such a tizz about the Arab world. Why ever (our successors will ask) did we think we had anything really big to fear from the 21st century’s most spectacularly unsuccessful regional culture?
Last weekend news reached us that Arab League leaders had approved the idea of a (presumably) US-led and UN-flagged imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya. ‘Great news,’ cry the muddle-headed advocates of such a plan — as though what the Arab League leaders think is of any serious importance, even in their own countries. William Hague went so far as to suggest that the leaders’ declaration gave the plan the necessary stamp of regional approval.
But who are these ‘leaders’? To remark that they were meeting in Cairo gives edge to that question. Do we yet know what sort of a creature the Egyptian government is going to be? The statesman speaking for the League last weekend was its current chief, the Omani foreign minister — fresh from popular demonstrations against his own undemocratic government.
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