Succinct assessment of the Arab spring

Comrade Talal (a brilliant scientist) shared with me this assessment of the Arab spring: "The evidence is now clear that the first phase of the Arab uprisings has failed to achieve significant results beyond changing the top leadership in Tunis and Egypt. The Libyan uprising is a sham, with much of the fighting probably conducted by special forces of Nato countries (let alone their air forces). Baharin, you know better, and Syria and Yemen are disasters. Hopefully, phase two will unfold better than the first one."  I could not agree more.