Spring breaks

Published on 07/08/2012 00:00

Stephen Humphries (Letters, 6 August) is right to complain of the bias in reporting the regime changes collectively known as the Arab Spring, however he misses the truly startling fact that these revolutions are not in our interest.

Two years ago Libya was stable, Gaddafi had come to an accommodation with the West and the heir apparent was his LSE-educated son, Saif al-Islam.

Now, nearly nine months after his capture, Saif al-Islam 
remains a prisoner of regional militia in Zintan, and Libya 
teeters on the edge of becoming a failed state.

Al-Qaeda in North Africa has taken control of northern Mali with weapons liberated during the Libyan revolution. It has destroyed the Sufi shrines and mosques of Timbuktu and has imposed a Talibanesque regime on the local populace.

Given what happened in neighbouring Iraq, when the dominant minority was overthrown, we can only expect the worst in Syria, which has a similar pattern of an aggrieved 
majority and minorities including Kurds and Christians.

Nor are the democratically elected Islamists in Egypt and elsewhere a cause for much joy, as they face the problems of youthful populations, high expectations and poor economic prospects.

Even if their ideology had not predisposed them to hostility to the West, then the political need for an external enemy would have guaranteed it.

On top of this, the Iranian 
nuclear weapons programme is a cause for grave concern.

It is high time our foreign 
policy was handled by grown-ups rather than reckless idealists.

Otto Inglis

Inveralmond Grove

Edinburgh