The New Millennium: The First Two De cades 63held in high esteem within the United
States, the war in Afghanistan— all
but a few U.S. military advisors were
withdrawn in 2014— became widely
unpopular.
Con temporary events continue to
hold surprises. In December 2010, a
local protest by a single man in Tuni-
sia sparked a massive social protest
against the cruelty and corruption of
Tunisia’s long- standing dictator, Zine
al-Abidine Ben Ali. In January 2011,
Ben Ali was overthrown and fled to
exile in Saudi Arabia. But protest
against corrupt and brutal Arab
leaders did not stop there. Soon popu-
lar protests broke out in Egypt, Libya,
Yemen, Bahrain, and later Syria.
Egypt’s leader, Hosni Mubarak, was
taken by surprise and faced a choice of
mass murder of protestors or stepping
down. With Egypt’s military refusing
to kill protestors, Mubarak was forced
to step down. The fate of Libya’s dic-
tator, Muammar Qaddafi, was more
severe: after having been forced from power by a rebellion actively supported by France
and the United States, Qaddafi was captured and later murdered by his captors.
The ultimate fate of what we now think of as the “Arab Spring” of 2011 remains
unclear; in Bahrain protest was brutally suppressed, and in Syria, Bashar al Assad’s
efforts to stay in power against widespread social protest have led to his forces killing
more than 70,000 of Syria’s own citizens and a massive refugee crisis. In Egypt,
“democracy” has proven elusive as the fall of Mubarak was followed by the election
of Muhammad Morsi (leader of an unpopular religious party), then his ouster by the
Egyptian military, and now a provisional government run, essentially, by Egypt’s mili-
tary. The Arab Spring is nevertheless remarkable for two reasons. First, it gave lie to the
claims of radical and militant Islamists (such as Al Qaeda) that only through Islamic
revolution, terror attacks on “the West,” and the reestablishment of strict Islamic law
could Arab dictators be overthrown. Second, the combined might of secret ser vices and
militaries failed to resist the power of young people armed with mobile phones, courage,
and conviction.Protesters in Tunisia attack the office of the prime
minister using a coffin draped in the Tunisian flag in
January 2011. Many authoritarian governments in
the Middle East faced popu lar uprisings during the
Arab Spring.ESSIR7_CH02_020_069_11P.indd 63 6/14/16 10:02 AM