“totally helpless, vulnerable and fearful”

Rami Khouri on what Wikileaks tells us about Arab governments:

The assorted Arab leaders who are quoted as asking the United States to hurry up and do something about Iran’s growing nuclear technology capabilities reveal an apparent inability to take care of their own countries and citizens.

Those who privately called on, or expected, Israel or the United States, or both, to do their dirty work for them did so because of their inability to make decisions and pursue policies to transform their countries into more viable states that could undertake the tasks of statecraft — whether diplomacy or war — with some credibility.

In my opinion, the biggest problem with Arab governments is the lack of a clear ideology. The Iranian government’s ideology is negative and unsavory, but it is focused, clear and easy to communicate with the masses. Arab leaders on the other hand want to combine a conservative culture (deference to leadership and moral absolutism) with the consumerism of capitalistic societies (openness and individual freedom). That would inevitably lead to an intellectual paralysis and an inability to make decisions.