A theory is currently making the rounds among an increasing number of Arabs, claiming that there is a closely knitted plot against Arab armies. Examples of this combine in one phrase what can never otherwise meet under the same roof, and the claims start with the disbandment of the Iraqi army following the U.S.-led war on Iraq in 2003, and do not end with what is happening in Egypt, where the army, and allegedly the people, stand against the Muslim Brotherhood, the ‘agents of America'—all this without forgetting to add in to the mix the conspiracy by takfiris and jihadis in Syria to weaken and exhaust the brave army there. Since Arab armies are supposedly relied upon to stand up to Israel and perhaps even liberate Palestine, and confront Western greed and scheming, not to mention guard national and pan-Arab dignity, it becomes easy to identify the ultimate source of the conspiracy, as none other than: the United States and Israel. The picture would not be complete without Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reminding us of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who ushered in the era of stable nationalist military regimes, and stood up to old and new colonialism in the name of a strong, sovereign, and prudent Arab nationalism. But if we put aside those who stand to benefit from this analysis, what remains is a degree of nostalgia for the era of military rule, and its stability and clamoring for pride and dignity. This is partly due to what the state of affairs has become like after the uprisings of the ‘Arab Spring,' with Arab reality rife with weakness and fragmentation, and consequently, it is unable to reassure anyone to a stable present or a stable future. If we add to this the possibility that our borders themselves may be altered, we can further understand this retreat to the safety of a cozy, familiar past. However, repeating the Arab 1950s and 60s is nothing more than pure delusions. To be sure, the mega urban cities of today are starkly different from those of yesteryear, when Arab cities were closer to being big villages. As for the world that allowed military regimes to thrive, under the weight of Cold War polarization, it has changed dramatically and has little tolerance for such regimes. This is not to mention that breaking up the masses filling up the public squares, in the aftermath of the uprisings, may not be as easy as some would imagine. Beyond this, nostalgia itself is always deceptive, as it tends to romanticize the past and its examples, in reaction to the miseries of the present. Indeed, military regimes did not fight Israel, as is being claimed, but suffered resounding defeats at Israel's hands. Furthermore, they produced generation after generation of individuals whose individuality was crushed by tyranny, even as tyranny called on them to raise their heads high. Moreover, the countries ruled by military regimes faltered in culture and the economy, widening the gaps that separated them from an increasingly globalized world, where progress has been intimately linked to freedoms. But more importantly, these regimes have the lion's share of the blame for our present abysmal situation, including the swelling of the fundamentalist and takfiri phenomenon itself. For those who want evidence about the ultimate outcome of having such regimes, all they have to do is examine the situation in Syria today.
