Two years after US tanks thrust into Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, the Middle East is no safer but is being swept by political changes challenging a decades-old stalemate of power. The US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, triggered two simultaneous and contradictory phenomena in the region, by inviting increased terrorist activity whilst prodding other regimes into taking steps towards democratic reform. The past two years have seen the spread of extremist organisations such as Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network to previously stable countries such as Saudi Arabia or Kuwait.Many Iraqis, even among those who welcomed the US intervention, now resent the presence of troops, which have failed to bring stability, security and basic services to large swathes of the territory. Bomb attacks, including suicide operations, are a daily occurrence in the troubled country, where both US and Iraqi forces have failed to bring several lawless areas under their control. With the emergence in Iraq of the first Shiite government in 1,000 years and the two most powerful countries in the region being non-Arab Israel and Iran, the old order of a Middle East dominated by Sunni Arabs is becoming a thing of the past.
The reaction of radical Sunni organisations in Iraq and elsewhere is key to the stability of the region. In a recent report, the International Crisis Group argued Washington's hamfisted policies in the region risked radicalising the population and bolstering the Jihadist brand of Islamic activism. But the United States claims that its forceful approach has paid off and cites as the latest example the massive popular movement in Lebanon demanding an end to Syria's 30-year-old occupation.