The Arab Spring

I read Vali Nasr's opinion "If the Arab Spring Turns Ugly" in yesterday's NY Times. Nasr explains that the optimism of the Arab Spring might not turn out so well "because throughout the Middle East there is a strong undercurrent of simmering tension between Sunnis and Shiites... the region's two main power brokers, Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, are already jousting for power." I'm not in any way an expert on the Middle East; however, when my family moved to Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s when I was a teenager, one of the first things I learned--one thing I felt-- was this "undercurrent of simmering tension between Sunnis and Shiites." Quite frankly, it's hard to miss. Nasr also states that "the problem goes back to the colonial period when European administrators manipulated religious and ethnic diversity to their advantage by giving minorities greater representations in colonial forces and governments." It's good for us to remember that.