[bratticus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Jordan's PM resigns

Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai resigned on Tuesday following weeks of protests by Jordanians calling on the government to step down.

[crude_intentions]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I')s there a pattern here? Is this all ben ladin's fault or what?

[dorlomin]

He was fired not resigned.

The pattern has been obvious from the outset, high food and fuel costs break the psychological fear barrier of protesting. The risk reward calculus tilts towards taking the risk. In Egypt the protests gained a critical mass than the killing of 300 people could not stop. The army was aware that it was a conscript army and they could not rely on the units near Cairo to attack the people, the elite units were in the desert facing Israel.

Egypt had a proto democratic structure and well known voices who could be negotiated with. Syria and Saudi do not so any unrest there will be much more brutal (10 000s died in unrest in the 80s in Syria, they used tanks to flatten towns where protests were held).

Hunger motived the French revolution, the Paris commune, the Russian revolution and many others besides.