In an article in the Saudi-financed London-based Asharq Al-Awsat Abdel-Rahman Al-Rashid wrote that despite the fact that the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi predicted his fate he did not do much to prevent it. Al-Rashid explained that following the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi warned that what had happened was serious and that other Arab leaders could be next. "Today it is Gaddafi's turn, as international coalition forces have now taken measures to overthrow his regime and kill or capture its leader," Al-Rashid argued. "He did not learn from what happened in Iraq, despite the fact that Saddam's lesson was clear, given that the Iraqi dictator refused to reconcile with his people, and believed that ruling with an iron fist was the best way to maintain his authority," Al-Rashid added. Gaddafi, Al-Rashid maintained, had many opportunities to become a conventional leader, and stop his bloody onslaught against his opponents, and all those who disagreed with him throughout the world. "Gaddafi's crisis has proven that it is almost impossible for a dictator to learn lessons," Al-Rashid wrote. In the London-based daily Al-Hayat George Semaan wrote that change is in progress everywhere in the Arab world despite different experiences. "By taking a quick look at the map of the Arab world one can clearly see that the storm of change has not spared anyone although it has taken different shapes and forms. The picture is not the same, nor is the change which is materialising differently in each country," Semaan wrote. Semaan said that because the map of change is redrafting the map of regional order, the sponsors of the international system immediately assumed their role under various shapes and forms, depending on the interests and the circumstances surrounding them. Semaan argued that the Tunisian and Egyptian experiences allowed the preservation of the social fabric and its unity, by relying in part on a long history linked to the building of the state and its institutions -- namely the military -- but also on a society which is still upholding the minimum level of partisan and unionist life and other civil society institutions. Moreover, Semaan added, they did not directly threaten regional and international interests, despite the fact that they have forced and are still forcing the concerned sides to reconsider their interests and relations, while the international community and especially the United States and the European Union are not distant from what is happening in Tunis and Cairo. Commenting on the protests in Syria, Abdel-Bari Atwan wrote in the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi that while it is perhaps premature to view the current popular protests in Syria as the beginning of an uprising, the Syrian people harbour numerous grievances that will push in that direction sooner or later if the regime does not hasten to take serious steps towards reform. "Over the past 10 years of President Bashar Al-Assad's rule, the Syrian people have heard promises of reform. However, none of those promises has been fulfilled," Atwan wrote. Abdel-Bari wrote that we are well aware that Syria is targeted because it is the only Arab country which hosts the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements, and which has played a major role in bringing about victory over the Israelis during their aggression against Lebanon in the summer of 2006. "However, it is absolutely no longer acceptable for Syria to use this role as a pretext for avoiding the political, social and economic reforms which the Syrian people have been demanding for four decades," he concluded. The editorial of the Qatari Al-Watan newspaper focussed on the Egyptian referendum on the constitution saying that the high turnout of voters (41 per cent of eligible voters) means Egyptians won the first round of democracy. This achievement says that the Egyptian people who took the world by surprise with their glorious revolution against dictatorship and corruption, deserve this democracy. With this successful referendum Egypt is giving the rest of the countries in this part of the world who are on their way towards democracy the roadmap." The Jordanian Addostour wrote that the absence of public freedom, and more oppressive policies and corruption are the main reasons behind the current revolutions in most countries in the Arab world and which was initiated by Tunisia. A closer look at the Arab scene shows that some regimes, especially that of Gaddafi, do not only deny its people the principles of basic freedoms including that of expression but also deny their right to peaceful demonstrations and strikes. The editorial of UAE's Al-Bayan underlined the necessity of the world uniting its rhetoric against Gaddafi. The editorial also rejected fears that troops of the international coalition are intervening in Libya as a prelude to an occupation of the country for its oil wealth. It defended the strikes as a way "to neutralise the air force as well as cut off means of supply to Gaddafi's troops and thus prevent more massacres against civilians." "To do away with conspiracy theories and misinterpretations, a unified message should also reach the helpless Libyan people underlying that the whole world from east to west are supporting them and contributing to preserving their safety," the editorial added. The Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds pointed out the double standard of the Western powers who raced to intervene in Libya and are ignoring Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians. "When will Western powers intervene to support the freedom of Palestinians and protect them?" is an edit which pointed out that once again the Western powers who pushed the Security Council to issue a resolution to save the Libyan people under Chapter Seven of the UN charter employ double standards. "Why can't the Palestinians who have been struggling for decades for their freedom and the end of Israeli oppression and occupation, receive the same treatment and have the international community's support via similar tough resolutions being adopted against Libya?"
