In the Arab world, the counterrevolution has achieved another bitter success.
The last time the president sent the parliament home in Tunisia, the military in Sudan is now placing the transitional council under house arrest and taking power.
The failure of the peaceful revolution in Sudan was on the horizon, and the script of the 2013 coup in Egypt followed: First gain time with an interim solution, then discredit the civilian government, and finally order calls for the military to take power.
But one thing has changed.
The regimes clinging to the status quo continue to believe that they can prevail by force.
The demonstrators, on the other hand, have learned to stay on the streets.
Whether in Sudan or Iraq, whether in Beirut or Algiers.
The military rulers in Khartoum are taking a high risk.
Economically, the country is on the brink, it can hardly survive without outside help.
The West will no longer be ready for this after the coup, despite the recent (and now probably ended) rapprochement.
Then those who want this step backwards have to reach into their pockets, i.e. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates.
All those who feel cheated of their future must recognize again that the transformation process in the Arab world is not a matter of months, but of an entire generation.