TUNISIA REVOLUTION – AT 10:20 A.M. ET:  I think this is the first time we've ever mentioned Tunisia, a North African Arab country, at Urgent Agenda.  The country has just had a revolution, a warning sign to Arab autocrats throughout the Mideast.  From Fox:

Tunisia has sworn in a new interim president and he has asked the prime minister to form a unity government.

Longtime autocratic ruler President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country Friday for Saudi Arabia following a popular uprising and deadly riots.

Fouad Mebazaa, the former president of the lower house of parliament, was sworn in as chief of state on Saturday. He says he asked the premier to form a "national unity government in the country's best interests."

Mebazaa said in his first televised address that all political parties including the opposition will be consulted "without exception nor exclusion."

COMMENT:  Unrest is continuing.  Maybe Hillary Clinton had an inkling of what was about to happen when she denounced oppression in the Arab world several days ago.

Bringing down a government through popular revolt is an enormous development in an Arab country, even one not generally in the middle of Mideast disputes.  Will it affect other authoritarian regimes?  Too early to say, but there is clearly dissatisfaction in other Arab states.

There is potential for good here, but also, as my friend Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi points out, potential for tragedy.  Too often, when Arab populations have had a shot at democracy, they've gone to the polls and elected Islamic extremists.  Look what happened with the Palestinians in Gaza, who elected the extremist group, Hamas.  And even in Iraq, which we liberated, the nuts still have a large popular following.

So we'll have to wait and see if an Arab country can pull off a truly democratic revolution this time.  And let's see if "human rights" groups show the slightest interest.

January 15, 2010