I like your optimism, TuffStuffMcGruff, but one fears it is much too early to say how these revolutions are likely to end. Egypt is currently in the grip of a military government (not much change there then bar Mubarak) Bahrain is facing a sectarian rebellion which may well end with a theocratic satellite of Iran and Libya could indeed dissolve into civil war and tribal conflicts. On the hopeful side, Tunisia appears calm if unfocussed.

None of these countries have any tradition of democracy as the West understands it. The optimistic view is that they will be left alone to develop their own philosophies of representative government - but more cynically, they have too much oil and Islam for us to leave them alone.