Saturday, January 15, 2011

Tunisia the First Domino?

The people of Tunisia just chased their long-time, unelected President out of the country. I'm guessing this hasn't happened recently in the Arab world; a place where most leaders are some type of autocrat. Go here to see a Washington Post article about Tunisia's president fleeing.

Now my question is this: Will what happened in Tunisia catch on elsewhere across North Africa and through the Middle East? Many of that region's autocrats are sleeping poorly tonight, and tomorrow will be checking their Swiss bank accounts.

The problem with such popular uprisings is that the new government may be much less friendly to the U.S., if for example that new government is a Taliban-like Islamist regime.