As a broke grad student, with not much to look forward to, broken soul, stuck under a mountain of debt with no way out & with no prospects for meaningful work, I feel just as hopeless as Mohammad Bouazizi. Although I don't have the guts, nor do I intend, to set myself on fire. But events overseas over the past few weeks have shown that political change is better when it comes from within. This goes against the view that you can spread democracy by invading a country, dropping bombs, being an occupying force, imposing your will...and then using that as a launch pad to spread democracy to the rest of a region. Iraq serves as a horrible reminder of this flawed thinking. That kind of goal (spreading democracy) has to be accomplished organically.
Already there are protests in Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt as a result of the Tunisian revolution.
