With Egypt’s US-backed dictator now formally an ex-dictator, Jordan is clearly on the short-list of possible next revolution candidates, with protests having already forced the sacking of the entire cabinet by King Abdullah II and the appointment of a new prime minister.
But having struggled to remain as non-commital as possible and reversing course several times during the course of Egypt’s 2+ weeks of revolution, the Obama Administration’s credibility in unquestioningly backing harsh dictators is fading, as is the belief by those dictators that the president’s seal of approval guarantees their hegemony.
To that end, the Obama Administration is reportedly trying to reassure King Abdullah II that the US government has a “long-term commitment” to seeing his rule continue, praising his “political and economic reforms” even as protesters march in the streets.
For Jordanians, the issue is clear: the current system allows them only to elect the relatively powerless lower house of parliament, while the entire upper house, the entire cabinet and the prime minister are all appointed by the king.
For the Obama Administration, the notion that 80 million Egyptians might at some point get free elections is already something of a culture shock – officials were quite comfortable with them under the yoke of an ageless dictator. For Jordan to “fall” as well, by which of course we mean “fall to freedom,” is a terrifying prospect for officials committed to the stability of the region as a bastion of tyranny, and the promise to support Jordan is likely not a false one, though it remains to be seen if the administration can do much of anything in the face of popular revolutions.
You think the Neo-cons are going ballistic over Egypt, wait for Jordan to fall. They are being hammered by the commodities speculation, and ethanol program that's inflating food and energy prices. We should call this wave of revolutions the Wreck of QE2
What people in Jordan, Egypt, Tunis, Iran, Syria and elsewhere need to remember is their unity.
Having said that they need to be careful of those who in the name of religious-religion will fool them into corner and steal their revolution. People uprising in Middle East is about dictatorial regime and their supporters, is not about Islam or any other religion, is about people and their social and political situation, they simply demanding their democratical rights where they can decide their future, whereby their present governments stealing peoples wealth which being supported by the western democracy, a falsified terms in democracy where people in Middle East and elsewhere been paying for it for years and with their life.
Read Queen Noor's book, "Leap of Faith" and you'll discover the ridiculousness of the Jordanian royal family. They use U.S. foreign aid to buy all sorts of toys (airliners, yachts, helicopters, cars, palaces) and despite their expensive ivy league educations, they act like a bunch of spoiled morons.
It is often not realized that the very first and still on-going uprising in the ME began in Palestine some 70 to 90 years ago when mostly East European Jews (converted Jews that is) under the banner of Zionism financed and supported by West European nations (Britain 1917 Balfour Declaration) were in the process to establish their colonial settler state of Israel in Palestine. The Palestinian revolt is against one of the most oppressive and brutal regimes and has generated war and unrest in the ME since WW2. (and also before) It has now ignited and spread the Arab masses, sympathetic to the Palestinian cause in other western aligned oppressive and brutal US distatorships, as we are witnessing to-day in several ME countries which has become a nightmare for the Zionist rulers of Israel. Prominent statesmen, (Ernest Bevin, Chrurchill, George Marshall, Forsestal and the like) in the 30ties and 40ties, already warned us at the time that the creation of such an exclusively Jewish settler state, populated by strangers of mainly East European descent would set the region on fire and will lead to permanent war with the Arab countries. How right they have been.