The 5 Most Unstable Nations Today (Early 2013)

I won't include Somalia in this, since that's no longer a coherent nation, by most accounts. 1) Pakistan 2) Afghanistan 3) Democratic Republic of the Congo 4) Iran 5) Yemen Which nations will have revolutions this year, and why?

• Florida

• Zimbabwe should be on that list.

• I would not include Iran. It is suffering from sanctions but elections will go ahead as scheduled and Ahmedinejad will step down. Democratic Republic of the Congo is highly unstable and dangerous right now.

• 1) Syria 2) Zimbabwe 3) Florida 4) New York 5) Montréal I fixed it for you, OP.

• There's more than one nation?

  Amurrican

• I would add Mali and Syria to that list. If you were to do a Top Ten, add Central African Republic, Somalia, and Zimbabwe.

• I would definitely say Syria ahead of Iran. And what with Iraq and Egypt and Zimbabwe needing to be on there, it really needs to be a Top 10.

• The former Soviet republic of Georgia is going through a bad patch right now.

• We could do 20 or even 50, if we felt like it. The five just limits it to the most dire. How about Sudan? I could easily see a war between that nation and South Sudan.

• Egypt

• Argentina is on the brink

• R11 Does it have something to do with the current "Evita" revival? I didn't think Ricky Martin was THAT bad.

• Zimbabwe is a functioning nation. A dictatorship, yes, but still functioning like Cuba and Venezuela. It's just that white people are no longer treated like they're God's chosen.

• "Zimbabwe is a functioning nation" No, it isn't - it hasn't "functioned" for the last 20 years.

• Saudi is getting uppity: LAS VEGAS January 5, 2013 (AP) A sergeant in Saudi Arabia's air force was jailed in Las Vegas on charges that he pulled a boy into a hotel room and sexually assaulted him the morning of Sin City's big New Year's Eve fireworks extravaganza. Mazen Alotaibi, 23, faces charges including kidnapping, sexual assault with a minor and felony coercion that could get him decades in state prison, according to police and charging documents obtained Friday. The boy, who is younger than 14, told police the man forced him into a room at the Circus Circus hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and raped him. Police arrested Alotaibi after being called to the hotel before 9:30 a.m. Dec. 31. "There was a kidnapping and sexual assault with force," Las Vegas police Lt. Dan McGrath said. "The victim said he was forced into the room and sexually assaulted. We have a strong case based on the evidence." The boy, who lives out of state, was staying at the hotel with his family, McGrath said. He was taken to a hospital for medical treatment and evidence collection and released later to family members. His name was not made public. McGrath said Alotaibi produced a Saudi Arabian military identification and said he was stationed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland near San Antonio, Texas. U.S. federal authorities and Saudi military officials were notified, the police lieutenant said. Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland spokesman Brent Boller told The Associated Press that records showed Alotaibi is currently stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss. Boller said he could not immediately verify if Alotaibi had been at Lackland, but noted that international military students attend a Defense Language Institute English Language Center on the base to improve their English-language skills. Alotaibi's lawyer, Don Chairez of Newport Beach, Calif., said Friday he had been in contact with U.S. military authorities at both air force bases and with the Saudi government. He said Alotaibi had come to Las Vegas for the New Year's celebration and will plead not guilty. Alotaibi also is charged with burglary, which in Nevada can stem from a person entering a building with intent to commit a felony. The alleged attack took place on the sixth floor of a 15-story hotel tower. Circus Circus has a total of 3,767 guest rooms in three towers and five three-story motor lodge-style buildings dubbed Circus Circus Manor. The arrest was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It cited a police report saying the boy was 13. Alotaibi was being held without bail at the Clark County jail pending an evidence hearing Jan. 17.

• Did I miss a civil war and an absent government in Zimbabwe r14? They're even planning an election, which Mugabe will obviously win, but still.

• R16 - there is a differnc between "non-functioning" and "falling apart" Stagnation and corruption are as lethal to a nation as violence and anarchy...

• The US is destroying Yemen.

• If that's the case r17, they're far from being alone. Half of Africa, Asia and Latin America have problems with corruption and economic stagnation.

• North Molly

  Mitt%20Romney

• Bashar al-Assad is supposed to give a press conference today

• California

• I'm surprised Mugabe has time to campaign since he's been so busy looting diamonds in his wife's name. Zimbabwe is one fucked up country. Last time I checked, western countries had stopped giving aid because Mugabe's cronies were so shameless about transferring millions to their private accounts.

• The Congo is ALWAYS on this list. It is never stable.

• The French have intervened in Mali, to prop up the existing government. Does France have a right to intervene in its former colonies?

  The Ghost of Le Grand Charles De Gaulle

• The idiot who said Zimbabwe is not a failed state must be one of the 14 officials that have internet access in that ridiculous shithole.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Zimbabwe

• Greece, United States, Japan, India Any of them could be blown over with the right feather.

• The problem with Zimbabwe is the west tried to stop Mugabe from redistributing the wealth that, at the time, was in the hands white farmers. Mugabe (rightly) wasn't having it.

• Step aside, Syria. Mali owns this thread.

• You folks don't know much about Africa. You haven't included any number of powder kegs. You need to start reading "The Punch"

• The Punch

  http://www.punchng.com/

• [quote]The problem with Zimbabwe is the west tried to stop Mugabe from redistributing the wealth that Mugabe's idea of redistributing the wealth was to seize working, profitable large farms from experienced white families and distribute them to veterans whose only farming ability was to manage small subsistence farms. If, decades ago, Mugabe had set about getting black Zimbabweans trained in agriculture, animal husbandry, irrigation and farm management, he would now have plenty of black Zimbabweans running successful farms. Instead, he destroyed Zimbabwe's source of export items through which the country obtained foreign currency and also destroyed Zimbabwe's ability to feed itself. Meanwhile, Mugabe set up his wife Grace in the diamond business through which they've grown quite rich. When confronted about this overseas they responded violently to the journalist. Mugabe's cronies have also grown rich. Zimbabwe is now a kleptocracy run by his thieving cronies. His cronies have grown so shameless, that foreign nations are reluctant to grant aid because the cronies will still millions before poor Zimbabweans get their hands on the aid. Zimbabwe is fucked because Mugabe wouldn't give up power long ago.

• All it will take is a run on the banks to make any Western nation just as bad.

• Haiti should be on that list

• Syria, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Mali & Algeria. Every one of them FUBAR.