The Arab revolts - Suppression won’t save autocracies

ANYONE who has followed the revolutions across North Africa will find the barely-concealed menace in the statement from Saif al-Islam, one of Muammar Gaddafi’s sons, that “everything will be over in 48 hours”, more than a little chilling.

Despite contradictory reports, it seems that as every hour passes the rebels’ situation worsens and the dictator’s position improves. Should Gaddafi reassert control, his brave opponents face a very grim prospect. It would not be, as our own aspirant revolutionaries might say, a relationship of equals.

The rebels’ dreadful fate becomes more and more likely every hour that passes without foreign intervention. Even if international agreement could be reached on the next steps and that intervention was made there is no guarantee that it would be successful.