Comment on: "Leading from Behind" by Roger Cohen

see
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/opinion/01iht-edcohen01.html
for Roger Cohens original article.

I agree with the substance of Mr. Cohen's column - \"leading from behind\" for the US in its current state of decline, both economic and political (having just returned from two months in Europe, many people we talked with are quite unbelieving in terms of how far down the US has gone).

However, I am still very skeptical in terms of the \"success\" or \"benefits\" of the so called Arab Spring.

The elections in Tunisia has given an Islamist party (all-be-it \"moderate\") by far the largest share of the electoral vote, and it promptly sent signals that Shira law (e.g. on allowing polygamy) will be re-enabled.

In Libya a similar lead of islamist political parties is evident. And in Egypt, the poster child of the Arab Spring, the military seems poised to consolidate its power, and is allowing anti-coptic-christian violence.

In all these cases (as in Iraq and Afghanistan) the US's ignorance about other parts of the world, and their implicit assumption that when people \"protest\", it means that they want the type of democracy and society we have -- THEY DON'T, as evidenced by the rise of islamists all through the region.... Although when you get right down to it, the Republicans in many ways want to institute the christian equivalent of Shira law in the US.