Yes, the bad guys have been dealt a blow across the Arab world in the last few months \u201d\u201d not only Al Qaeda, but the whole rogues\u2019 gallery of dictators, whose soft bigotry of low expectations for their people had kept the Arab world behind. The question now, though, is: Can the forces of decency get organized, elected and start building a different Arab future? That is the most important question. Everything else is noise.<\/p>\n
To understand that challenge, we need to recall, again, where Bin Ladenism came from. It emerged from a devil\u2019s bargain between oil-consuming countries and Arab dictators. We all \u201d\u201d Europe, America, India, China \u201d\u201d treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations, and all of us sent the same basic message to the petro-dictators: Keep the oil flowing, the prices low and don\u2019t bother Israel too much and you can treat your people however you like, out back, where we won\u2019t look. Bin Laden and his followers were a product of all the pathologies that were allowed to grow in the dark out back \u201d\u201d crippling deficits of freedom, women\u2019s empowerment and education across the Arab world.<\/p>\n
These deficits nurtured a profound sense of humiliation among Arabs at how far behind they had fallen, a profound hunger to control their own futures and a pervasive sense of injustice in their daily lives.<\/p>\n