I do not pretend for a moment to be an expert on Tunisia or the Maghreb. I am simply a person who finds the region’s history and future to be interesting, and who believes that the region has an important role to play in the central ideological struggle of the early 21st century.
I also claim no omnipotence; I did not see this coming this fast. But I did see signs when I was in Tunisia in March that made me wonder – how strong is the popular support for the old ‘we trade our freedoms for security’ bargain?
Two stories in particular made me wonder. One was on one of our last days in Tunis. We were riding a bus south of the city toward Manouba, along the #4 train line. When we rode out (about 0800), there was English graffiti on a metro station wall facing the road. It read: “ARE POLICE ARE BASTARDS.” When we went home, at lunch time, the graffiti had been painted over, as if it never happened. Both the fact that the message existed in the first place, and then that it was covered up so quickly, in my mind pointed to an inherent weakness of the regime.
The second story was a little more interesting. We took a tour of an institution outside Tunis on one of our very first days in the country. During it, we had a chance to meet some young people, the same ages as the young Tunisians who were with us. One of the young men was anxious – VERY anxious – to speak with us, and spoke with clear disdain for the authorities, as one might expect from a dude with a Wu-Tang Clan courier bag. We told him he ought to be part of our group, and he sniffed, and said, no, I talk too much, “but it’s OK.”
I guess these stories are to say that if you were looking, as Hunter Thompson said, with the right kind of eyes, you could see that there was a big, beautiful wave about to break. There was not just simmering discontent – that would suggest that the Tunisian people were ruled solely by emotion. There was something deeper and more powerful than that, and that was the fact that most of them understood that Ben Ali’s rule was completely illegitimate. Once that realization is made by all, it’s really just a matter of time until the structure begins to collapse. What has happened over the past four weeks is that people have talked – and maybe talked too much. But you know what? It’s OK.
What follows now are my observations, based on my admittedly very limited view of events, about Western takes in general on the situation, and U.S. takes in particular.
Western Media Got it Wrong for a Long Time
From the moment I started closely following this story on Christmas Eve, al-Jazeera had by far the best contextualized coverage of the unrest. This is not to say they were the most accurate – AJE was predicting on 26 Dec that Ben Ali had less than 24 hours left. But AJE understood that, quite early in the proceedings, this stopped being about jobs and food prices, and started being about civil liberties.
Unfortunately, the Western media stuck with the ‘food and job riots’ storyline right up to the point when it became clear the regime was going to collapse. Even then, U.S. media in particular kept referring to what had been predominantly peaceful protests met with government violence as ‘riots.’
Credit where credit’s due, the LAT had it right first. Disappointingly, it wasn’t until the 14th that NPR finally got it right by explaining that the movement began with employment issues, and quickly became something else.
This has had me really reexamining in my head the way American media cover foreign stories, and makes me wonder how many other things I read every day that are completely out of context.
Any serious observer – hell, any casual observer – of Tunisia knew that the coverage was ridiculous.
Western Diplomacy Got Some of it Right and Some of it Wrong
The Western world has been all over the bloody map in their support, then neutrality, then non-support of Ben Ali over the past five days.
U.S. diplomats can claim we’ve been consistent on our Mideast foreign policy all they want, but the waffling this week was nothing short of embarrassing.
On Monday, State said that both sides needed to calm down, and we were still at least mildly supportive of the regime. By Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was saying that we weren’t picking sides. Once Elvis had left the building, we suddenly grew a pair and said that we supported the Tunisian people’s right to choose their own government all along. It was embarrassing, and shameful. From our nation's very birth, through initiatives both liberal and conservative, we’ve claimed that democracy is an natural right for all people; I believe the phrase was that these rights are ‘self-evident.’ For Secretary Clinton and the State flaks this week to equivocate when this movement was on the ropes was simply inexcusable. I get it – I get that we can’t just come out and support insurrections in other countries. But we can be a little more nuanced in answers, and say something to the effect of ‘We are picking sides! We’re on the side of increasing liberty and civic participation. If that can happen under Ben Ali, super. If it can’t, we reconsider.’
Of course, that would require identifying core principles and sticking to them – and not just negotiating alliances of convenience based on whatever the crisis du jour is. God knows, Bourguiba and Ben Ali were our boys against the commies, and Ben Ali was our ‘stalwart ally’ against al-Qaeda.
Oddly enough, our waffling was downright heroic compared to the typically feckless performance by Nicolas Sarkozy’s government. First, Sarkozy’s government decried the situation in Tunisia – and then proffered military cooperation to Ben Ali! By mid-week, they had come to a policy of neutrality, before today voicing support for the Tunisian people. God almighty, it wasn’t enough to screw things up during the colonial era, was it?!
Analysis By Nincompoops
I don’t claim to be an expert about Tunisia. But a lot of people - some of whom are pretty smart folks - are making some pretty dumb assertions about the situation.
Marc Lynch, whose reporting I grew to admire, had one part of one story with which I really took issue. Specifically, he said that State’s decision to locate the MEPI office in Tunisia was ill-advised, because Ben Ali was such a brutal dictator. And he said this just hours before Ben Ali left; forced out by his own people, who in true democratic fashion, took to the streets and said ‘no.’
I feel it redundant to point this out, but Tunisia is the first of the Arab dictatorships to actually do something about their dictator! Perhaps that choice to locate MEPI in Tunisia was inspired, and not insane.
Perhaps my favorite of the moron commentaries came from (where else?) the American Spectator. This guy is worried, worried!, that this is the first step toward Tunisia being ruled by Sharia law under al-Qaeda!! Seriously, man, can you even find Tunisia on a map? Because if you’d ever been there, or ever spent even a day hanging out with Tunisians, you’d know this is about as likely as Ben Ali coming home to a ticker tape parade down Ave. Habib Bourguiba.
And, Mr. Larison of the American Conservative, your logic is just a white hot mess.
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