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Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-01-31-mideast-edit_x.htm
New Kind of Awe in the Mideast
(USA Today) Youssef M. Ibrahim - Iraq's first free election in half a century has given quite a boost to a liberation process underway in the greater Middle East, sending tremors through both ruled and rulers. Iraqis today stand like a phoenix amid the rubble of mediocre governance and corrupt autocracies. The Lebanese, with French and U.S. support, are openly shouting for an end to nearly two decades of Syrian occupation. Egyptians are loudly protesting a perennial presidency by one man, Hosni Mubarak, sitting atop power since 1981. Moroccans are aghast at the cost of their royal family, $272 million per year, when many live on $2 a day. The nightmarish ruling family of 5,000 greedy royal Saudi princes is under the worst pressure it has ever faced from Islamic terrorists and homegrown liberals.