I know that I’ve spoken about these things before, but now they do seem current. The people on the street have reclaimed the initiative. Pakistan (fake, failed and tragic state that it has been from its outset in 1947) is still a bizarre environment for religious extremism (a kind of surreal bubble of violent bigotry), but the Middle East seems to be moving in an entirely different direction. We’re talking about the will of the people now … the people awakened. Al-Qâ‘idah and the Talibân are quite off the radar screen as far as the Middle East is concerned. This is what has impressed me in the last few (Watch this space for busted prophecies!) weeks as, first, Tunisia, then Egypt, now Yemen and most dramatically in Libya the voice of the people is to be heard. * And for the imperial power brokers that poses a serious problem. I’ve dealt with power brokers before. They’re as stupid or as intelligent as any of us. But power is an aphrodisiac; it involves a kind of grotesque erotic dance. It does, indeed, corrupt those who perform it. The dance invokes the power to command and coerce, and it administers a real ‘zing’. When one waves a hand thousands bow down, are bowled over or die. It’s addictive. Mass fear drives it and that feeds back into a ghastly almost sexual climax. And the truly revolutionary message that the people of the Middle East are giving to the world is that fear is no longer a motive factor. The drug of fear tyrants have administered has quite suddenly lost its potency. The drug’s bust! We’re not talking about ‘perfect love casts out fear’ here. That’s still an ideal, but that’s not what we’re witnessing. What we’re witnessing is a mass rising of ordinary people who’ve decided that it’s their turn to speak and devil take the people with the guns. They’re willing to die to have their say. And the protracted struggle in Libya against a true megalomaniac is now the icon of what they mean. The Libyan revolutionaries have pleaded with the international community to impose a no-fly zone over their country and suppress the Lybian military’s advantage in sophisticated weaponry, weaponry supplied by the West. But that so-called ‘international community’ has denied them even that minimal level of protection. Mu‘ammar al-Qaddâfî, who has vowed to wipe out his own people and their resources (oil), now has antique Russian jets and ground defenses. Libyan pilots often seem to be intentionally miss their targets by hundreds of meters, but every now and then (by mistake?) they do hit as in the oil terminal at Ras Lannuf. Hundreds of Libyan revolutionaries have died, and with each death the maniac is both strengthened and weakened. To impose a no-fly zone you first knock out the air defenses of a country. Then you cruise around and make sure that no unauthorized aircraft are in the skies. The Americans and the Europeans know precisely where the Libyan air defense systems are deployed and their capabilities (after all, they supplied them and advised on their placement). They could destroy them in a matter of hours. As they drag their heels, hundreds die. The pious reticence of the US and of NATO is utterly facetious. It is also culpable (by the sin of omission) in the war crimes being committed with the arms they’ve supplied. The political ‘break-dancing’ is utterly macabre.