SWJ Small Wars Survey 2012

[AmericanPride]

Another word for speculation.

Yep. And there's entire professions dedicated to it so your condescension towards speculation is very much irrelevant to this discussion.

They're committed to joining and profiting from the global economy.

So long as they are powerless to change the conditions to better suit their interests. The world looks different when you're on top of it.

The revolutions are attributable to to exposed elites hung on their own corruption, ineptness, and ossified social structures, and to increasingly frustrated populaces who want more.

That's what I said... "exposed elites...," "the people harnessing the ideas, et.al...," So what "more" do the people want and from where do they draw their enablers, motivations, and ideals? What ideological language are they speaking? Are they speaking the language of nationalism or Islamism? No, they are speaking the language of liberalism, democracy, and human rights. These things were not suddenly invented in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya.

The Tunisian, Egyptian, and Libyan elites didn't inspire revolt because they were exposed to the forces of "global capitalism", they inspired revolt because they sucked at governing.

I did not say exposure to global capitalism "inspired" revolution in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia. I stated that the elites were vulnerable to the "political, economic, and cultural forces" of global capitalism. The elites did not necessarily "suck" at governing -- they did what governments are designed to do: maintained the privileges of those in control of it. But that position is not tenable in the international context of democracy, liberalization, modernization, and human rights. So a Tunisian lit himself on fire because he was tired of being beat up by the police -- what was the system in place that compelled him into that situation, and what alternatives exist? Did the Tunisian mob invent democracy? Liberalism?