A 7th Century Struggle over the Rightful Heir

Unlike Asian autocrats, who tended to be modernizers (like Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew), Arab autocrats tended to be predators “who used the conflict with Israel as a shiny object to distract their people from their own misgovernance,” writes Thomas L. Friedman in the NYT.

Egypt may send troops to defeat the rebels in Yemen. If this should happen, notes Mr. Friedman, “it would be the first case of a country where 25 percent of the population can’t read sending troops to rescue a country where the water comes through the tap 36 hours a month to quell a war where the main issue is the 7th century struggle over who is the rightful heir to the Prophet Muhammad — Shiites or Sunnis.” Read more here about a region “bulging with unemployed, angry youths and schools that barely function.”