Arab Spring Countries

The only reason Bahrain didn't erupt into civil war at around the same time as Syria did is that it is a tiny island easily controlled. But there were many protests there ongoing for years and many violent crackdowns on said protests. Given the small area of the island and support from the AlSauds the Khalifa family easily maintained dominance. But I'm not sure if it's really such a clear distinction. Where on the sliding scale of violence and counter violence does a country slip from civil unrest into civil war? Other countries in turmoil since the Tunisian revolution include Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Oman, Sudan, Nigeria, Algeria, Israel, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, to varying degrees. And maybe others. All have gone through events that have been linked, some more directly than others, to the events of the "Arab Spring," and the instability and push for democracy that came about in part due to the toppling of Hussein.

It was one of the more prosperous nations in Africa in the time. Nowadays, it's in ruin with the civil war.

It depends. If you talk to the people who were there or lived there or if you watch the news. And I met a lot of people, so I made my own conclusion who is lying.

"one of the more prosperous nations in Africa" is a really low bar to clear.

I have friends in Libya. They said things were better, more hopeful, for a while. But since then they've definitely gotten a lot worse.

As an Egyptian, I would share the exact same sentiment as those Libyans.

Pork, you're calling Hussein a democratically elected leader? And implying that somehow the government set up after him was less democratic? You know that these Arab spring movements were in large part inspired by the toppling of Hussein which nurtured a popular push toward democracy in these other countries like the one that emerged in Iraq, right? And.. you're blaming Obama for invading Iraq 5 years before he was elected president?

Is this trolling or genuine ignorance? it's hard to tell one from the other in some cases.

Wait, so hurricanes and earthquakes can't be blamed on Obama? Darn it!

You're really going to let comments like Ferbin's (who rarely has anything productive to say and spends most of his time spouting anti-American BS, when he's not directly attacking other users for disagreements on another quiz 2 years ago), which here is literally a full-on ad hominem personal attack, stand... but not allow the person being attacked to respond? God, the moderation here, FFS...

Ferbin: again, more briefly and less well articulated this time, your comment = projection, insecurity, and likely inaccuracy. And when you, or others, leave 50 comments, 45 of which are completely disconnected from reality but meant earnestly, and 5 of which are completely disconnected from reality but meant jokingly, everyone will rightly be challenged to discern one from the other.

Tunisia has been the most stable of the countries affected but they haven't progressed much. Egypt went from secular military strongman to democratically elected Islamist and back to secular military strongman. They lost a lot of lives and capital and are basically back where they started.

^Tunisia has actually progressed a lot. They might be the only Arab country that's now a democracy, albeit not a perfect one, of course.

On the other hand, they're still as religious, conservative, sexist and homophobic as before.

He already is. He's probably 3 times worse than Mubarak.

you're such the quintessential berk I'm not even going to try to figure out what you mean by that.

Kalbahamut, with all due respect, I, choosing between Mubarak, Gaddafi or Assad and the civil war, ISIS or the Islamic junta, I would choose the former.