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[RedKing]

Uhh...actually Tunisia beat them by about a month.

[GamerKnight]

THE REVOLUTION BEGINS!!! BROTHERS, RISE UP AND JOIN YOUR BRETHREN IN THE STREETS!!!

[MetalSlimeHunt]

NATO is not thusly restrained.

Speaking of NATO, Quaddafi has been trying to form a South Atlantic Treaty Organization for some time now with which to counter the "western imperial pigs/Al-Qaeda drug lords", or whatever he's blaming all his problems on now. It obviously hasn't come to pass, and now probably never will, seeing as his chances of surviving are fallling like a lead airplane.

[RedKing]

NATO is not thusly restrained.

Speaking of NATO, Quaddafi has been trying to form a South Atlantic Treaty Organization for some time now with which to counter the "western imperial pigs/Al-Qaeda drug lords", or whatever he's blaming all his problems on now. It obviously hasn't come to pass, and now probably never will, seeing as his chances of surviving are fallling like a lead airplane.

Could also be because there's already the OAS, the Arab League and the African Union. And there just aren't that many common security threats between South America and Africa.

[Rakonas]

http://listverse.com/2010/05/30/top-10-crazy-facts-about-kim-jong-il/

Remember that Kim Jong Il is not just the worlds greatest man, but he is also a god with supernatural powers.

>The government also distributed pamphlets advertising a wonder drug that would increase the height of short people. Those who responded to the pamphlets were sent away to different uninhabited islands along with the disabled in an attempt to rid the next generation of their supposedly substandard genes.
I now like Kim Jong Il.

[Duke 2.0]

 Except that even if you are a eugenics douche that is a terrible way to go about it. You won't get short people, you'll get insecure people while leaving the confident short people to procreate and grow more comfortable about their 'substandard' genes. And being insecure about something is a rather general thing, no real hard link between that and genes.

[SalmonGod]

I have a feeling that this year will be marked by uprisings, and it all started with Egypt, damn those troublemakers

Greece beat them all by about two years.  I give them credit for getting things rolling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Greek_riots

I admire them so fucking much for it, too.  A cop gets in an argument with an unarmed 15 year old kid and shoots them dead in the street.  Within a couple hours, several thousand people are raising hell about it -- AS IT FUCKING SHOULD BE.  And lots of people were inspired by them.  There were ripple effects through several countries, and lots of buzz online asking "why the hell aren't we doing that here?"  I think this mentally prepared a lot of people, who were more given to act when provided another catalyst.

[alway]

Right now, my thought is that Syria or Bahrain will be the next one to have a major escalation. Although Iraq had a day of major protests yesterday, I don't see the US allowing Iraq to go to Hell in a handbasket after we've just spent the last seven years trying to un-break it.

From what the BBC was saying, the Iraq protests were more of anti-corruption protests, as none of them really wanted to see the government taken down due to most groups actually being pretty fairly represented.

[Jopax]

That's the thing, when people see it succed in another country they are more inclined to try, heck i hope my country does the same, a change in ways is really needed in these parts and i have a feeling it won't be long

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Right now, my thought is that Syria or Bahrain will be the next one to have a major escalation. Although Iraq had a day of major protests yesterday, I don't see the US allowing Iraq to go to Hell in a handbasket after we've just spent the last seven years trying to un-break it.

From what the BBC was saying, the Iraq protests were more of anti-corruption protests, as none of them really wanted to see the government taken down due to most groups actually being pretty fairly represented.

It makes me wonder if Saddam would have a revolution on his hands right now if the US hadn't knocked him out of power. I guess we'll never know.

[Bouchart]

Saudi Arabia is worth a big look.  The prices for credit default swaps on Saudi sovereign debt has spiked drastically over the past few weeks, which is a proxy for sovereign risk and political instability.  Some pundits are even going as far to say there's a possibility of war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

[RedKing]

Yeah, both Syria and Saudi Arabia have "Day of Rage" events planned in early-mid March. The thing is, I think any protest movement in Saudi Arabia has already tipped their hand too much and allowed the authorities time to plan to interdict the event, a la Cameroon.

I haven't seen *anything* credible about a Saudi-Iran conflict. The Saudis always see a nefarious Iranian influence at work whenever a minority causes trouble anywhere in the Sunni world (which is most of the Arab world). I know the whole deal with Hezbollah basically hand-picking the Sunni prime minister in Lebanon had them up in arms. But I haven't seen anything to suggest a stronger response than hand-wringing and sectarian shit-flinging. The Saudis don't exactly field a huge military (it *is* well-equipped, thanks to us) but they may be hoping that we simply couldn't accept an Iranian victory and will intervene. That might be a huge miscalculation, if in fact that's something they're thinking about at all.

[PTTG??]

I have a feeling that this year will be marked by uprisings, and it all started with Egypt, damn those troublemakers

Uhh...actually Tunisia beat them by about a month.

Too late, they're writing the history books. It is now the Egyptian Year of Anger.

[alway]

Some pundits are even going as far to say there's a possibility of war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Yeah, and some pundits are saying the Egypt revolt was a sign of the end of the world. Needless to say, I'm not very inclined to believe pundits without solid evidence backing them up.

It makes me wonder if Saddam would have a revolution on his hands right now if the US hadn't knocked him out of power. I guess we'll never know.

A dictator from, and actively favoring, the minority religious group in a country highly divided by sectarian groups? As cringe-worthy as it is, I don't think such speculation is far off the mark. It is rather facepalm worthy to think back on the Iraq war: a war costing the better part of 2 trillion dollars* started due to false pretenses to overthrow a dictator who, less than a decade later, may have been overthrown by his own people anyway. $14,000 per tax paying citizen in the US. D:
*And that's only the direct costs to the government w/o including various economic aftershocks like oil prices.

[DJ]

That's the thing, when people see it succed in another country they are more inclined to try, heck i hope my country does the same, a change in ways is really needed in these parts and i have a feeling it won't be long

I wouldn't hold my breath. We have democracy so we could've deposed our leaders last October if we really wanted to, but we were too stupid to do so. We really only have ourselves to blame for the current situation in the country, any politician would do what ours are doing if he was guaranteed to get his votes no matter what he does or fails to do.