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. Bahrain is looking dodgy again. Or shall we take Morocco? Or Yemen? Or Saudi Arabia? On closer inspection the Arab League turns out to be a collection of despots, crackpots, tinpots, oligarchs, police states and medieval-style monarchies. They’ve been spending billions in recent decades on their air forces, aeroplanes and weaponry. Why can’t they impose their own no-fly zone on Libya if they’re so keen to have one?
We know why. The moment any attempt was made to reach consensus on a practical plan for Libya by the politicians of the rest of the Arab world, they would all start falling out among themselves.
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