* * Follow @thedailybeast * * Dow 01,234 +012 , Nasdaq 0,123 +01 ____________________ Search The Daily Beast * Home * Politics * Business * Innovation * Entertainment * Beast TV * Books * Art * Women in the World * Newsweek * Newsweek Magazine Featured: * Election * Fashion * Andrew Sullivan * Howard Kurtz * David Frum header-trial-issues World News Content Section In Newsweek Magazine The Arab Autumn Oct 30, 2011 10:00 AM EDT Tyrants have fallen. Elections have begun. Does America have the stomach to stand up for freedom once again? * Print * Email * Comments () * * * It is autumn now in the Arab Spring. The protests that began last December when a Tunisian street vendor set himself afire have toppled three of the Arab worldâs seemingly eternal strongmen and show few signs of abating. In Western hearts, the Arab Spring has excited admiration but also envy. Commentators have drawn labored and myopic comparisons with Occupy Wall Street, or the Tea Party. Only in America could we imagine a link between the passing spasms of our electoral politics and the greatest cultural upheaval of the young century, the demand for freedom and democracy by an entire people of whom experts said for decades that authoritarianism was a natural way of life. Others choose as metaphor the collapse of the Communist bloc in 1989, another world-shaking political event that took the West by surprise. But the governing parties of the Arab world, although they claim to rule in the name of Islam, are not united by a central ideology. If the strongmen who have fallen and those who yet reign share a common belief, it is in the importance of their own powerâand the ability to enrich their inner circles. Should the passions of the Arab Spring continue unabated, America will face a conundrum. The Obama administration seemed ill at ease in the early days of the protests, undecided, for example, whether it was for Mubarak or against him. The United States seemed to be chasing the news, even though President Obama had declared in Cairo just two years earlier that âgovernment of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power.â SYRIA Syrians protest against Bashar al-Assad., Reuters-Landov The president found his footing with the decision to go to war against Gaddafi. Across the region, other dictators, and other people yearning for freedom, are wondering whether America has the stomach to do it again, or whether our effort to help the Arab Spring along was one final gesture by a superpower pressed by more urgent matters at home. The Libya intervention, contrary to the fears of its critics, may actually have enhanced Americaâs reputation around the Mediterranean. In Syria, antiregime demonstrators are carrying signs lauding the death of Gaddafi and promising Assad that he is next. Dissenters in both Syria and Yemen are inviting the American military to take up their cause. Ironically, the people spilling into the streets of Hama and Sanaa have seen clearly what the administration, for no good reason, continues to obscure. Libya was an American war in which NATO assistedânot the other way around. We provided the drones, the refueling planes, and the cruise missiles, to say nothing of surveillance and command-and-control facilities. Without the United States, Gaddafi would still be running the country. All the Arab world knows this, although the affection in which those demanding freedom now hold the United States may fade as the American presence wanes, especially if our withdrawal from Iraq leaves that struggling young democracy to devolve into a vassal of Iran. What the Arab Spring has made clear is that slaughter is yesterdayâs tool of control. Heartened by the success of the revolutions in North Africa, the protesters in Syria seem less cowed than emboldened by the regimeâs violence. Even Assad by now must realize that the Baath Partyâs reign may be nearing its end. In the nations where the mighty have already fallen, we do not know how matters will play out. Tunisia just held free elections. Libyaâs new leaders have frightened Westerners with talk of Sharia, but until we know the details, there is no reason for panic: in the abstract, at least, government based on principles of Sharia is analogous to government based on the Ten Commandments. Egypt is a more troubling case: the military remains in charge, and appears increasingly to view internecine violence not as a problem but as a tool. Still, it is far too early for hand-wringing and second thoughts. Will Rogers once said that freedom works better in speeches than in practice. The Arab world is new to the practice of freedom and, like the rest of us, will make errors along the way. That is no reason not to cheer them on. Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long. Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale, where he has taught since 1982. His seven nonfiction books include Godâs Name in Vain: The Wrongs. His first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002), spent 11 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. His 12th book, The Violence of Peace: Americaâs Wars in the Age of Obama, was published by Beast Books in January. For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com. NEXT View As Single Page * Print * Email * Comments () * * * Tags: * World News, * Arab Middle East, * Middle East, * Arab Spring Related Stories Comments Change Text Size (BUTTON) Smaller Text (BUTTON) Larger Test Author Stephen L. Carter Stephen L. Carter Newsweek Magazine This Week's Issue * Barackâs Bodyguard * Somaliaâs Fresh Start? * Is Karl Spread Too Thin? Read more from Newsweek Most Popular 1. Facebookâs Graffiti Millionaire 2. Raped By The Cop She Called 3. The Dueling Realities of Jobless Data 4. 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