Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials -- July 13, 2012

Election workers organized ballot boxes in a warehouse at the army headquarters in Benghazi, Libya. Tomas Munita for The New York Times

The Islamist Ascendancy -- Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post

Post-revolutionary Libya appears to have elected a relatively moderate pro-Western government. Good news, but tentative because Libya is less a country than an oil well with a long beach and myriad tribes. Popular allegiance to a central national authority is weak. Yet even if the government of Mahmoud Jibril is able to rein in the militias and establish a functioning democracy, it will be the Arab Spring exception. Consider:

Tunisia and Morocco, the most Westernized of all Arab countries, elected Islamist governments. Moderate, to be sure, but Islamist still. Egypt, the largest and most influential, has experienced an Islamist sweep. The Muslim Brotherhood didn’t just win the presidency. It won nearly half the seats in parliament, while more openly radical Islamists won 25 percent. Combined, they command more than 70 percent of parliament — enough to control the writing of a constitution (which is why the generals hastily dissolved parliament).

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Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials

Benighted Syria is a conduit for international tensions - which is why we do nothing, even as the massacres continue -- Michael Burleigh, Daily Mail

Pressure valve off in al-Assad's Syria -- Fareed Zakaria, CNN

Syria: Bashar al-Assad's shrinking circle -- The Guardian editorial

Brits: Two Years Until Iran Gets a Nuke -- Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary

The case for recognising a limited Iranian nuke programme -- Loren White, Al Jazeera

Analysis: As Egypt leaders feud, economy heads toward cliff -- Edmund Blair, Reuters

Far-Reaching Changes Threaten Israel And Western Interests in Mediterranean -- Michael Widlanski, American Thinker

About that NATO supply line deal ... -- Bill Roggio and Lisa Lundquist, Long War Journal

The west isn’t ready for the rise of China -- Kevin Rudd, New Statesman

Hollande's Risky Plan -- Neil Rogachevsky, National Interest

5 reasons Condi Rice will not be Mitt Romney's VP pick -- Blake Hounshell, Foreign Policy