EVEN BROOKINGS SHILL ADMITTS US IS LEADING COUNTERREVOLUTION AND ARMING REBEL GROUPS IN MIDDLE EAST...
Rami Khoury: The Counter-Revolution is in Full Swing

Rami Khoury writes in the Daily Star today that the fight to “beat back the revolutionary democratic waves” sweeping across the Arab world “is now in full swing.” This counterrevolution, he writes, is evidenced in Washington’s “rock solid and unwavering” support given to the largely-undemocratic and authoritarian GCC states.The counterrevolution forces are a combination of local, regional, and foreign actors who according to Khoury, “are prepared to make any combination of arrangements to satisfy their need to maintain power and political-economic orer that suits their narrow interests.” These contradictions are alive and well in U.S. foreign policy in the region, says Khoury. He points to the populist revolt in Bahrain that demanded civil rights is a “crisis” and willing to be complacent as it is “crushed by force,” while an uprising in Syria is “a blessed event that deserves support.” The U.S. warns against Iranian support to Houthi rebels in Yemen, but sees it as “perfectly logical and legitimate” for the U.S. to fund and support their “favorite rebel groups in the region,” says Khoury, “not to mention attacking entire countries.”

According to Khoury,  “three principle powerful forces” currently engage actively amid political upheaval: the Arab Monarchies (led by the U.S. and the GCC) who want to maintain the status quo, the autocratic regimes that want to keep things in place (Syria, Egypt, and Iran), and populist forces with democratic or Islamist tendencies intending to usher in a new era of democratic, transparent governance.

[ED NOTES: Mr. Khouri is a member of the Brookings Institution  http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rami_G._Khouri