No Keith - nothing has been achieved yet in the way of the direction that these countries will take, whether it will be to embracing fundamentalist practices or democratic ones.
Newspaper articles, no matter how independent, do not speak for the people as a whole, or even those who are going to bring about any changes, certainly not at this stage of the game, and one article in one newspaper can in no way give anything like an accurate picture of the thinking or even the events in these countries.
The future of all of these countries hang in the balance, the future is totally undecided and instead of (your) spurious comparisons with Ireland, perhaps it is far more apposite to remember what happened when the Shah fell in Iran, an event that opened up this whole can of worms.
That al Qaeda is no longer relevant is an extremely dangerous and irresponsible assumption - certainly not the case in Yemen; we have no idea whatever of the situation anywhere else.
And please stop whining about personal abuse and the "accusations" are well enough recorded not to require further mention.
Jim Carroll