But the 22-member league's decision also tells us a lot about Arab views of U.S. power. Throughout the Libyan crisis, we've heard from pundits and politicians that the Iraq war tarnished brand America beyond repair, and made U.S. leadership non grata in the Mideast.

The dashboard tallies the daily number of tweets about developments in each listed country (the site is currently tracking Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Bahrain) and shows the average number of such tweets per minute for each country.

Freed on February 23 after being jailed for five months, the first thing the 33-year-old activist did was join protesters on the streets, even before returning home to be reunited with his young wife, 1-year-old twin daughters, and 6-year-old son.

The young Arab women and men of Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen have proved that they are willing to die to build a better future. They yearn for freedom, opportunity and democracy. It is doubtful they will accept anything less.

It's not surprising that the White House worked with Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa to end the crackdown on protesters and to hold talks with the country's mainly Shiite-led opposition, after reading classified State Department cables released last week by WikiLeaks.

Protesters clashed Friday with security forces in the Libyan capital of Tripoli and fought for control of key eastern cities in the most serious challenge to dictator Moammar Gadhafi's 42 years in power, according to witnesses, online posts and news reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on Bahrain to show restraint when responding to peaceful protests by its citizens. Speaking to reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill, she urged Bahrain to keep its commitment to hold accountable those who have used excessive force against peaceful demonstrators.

After a pre-dawn raid on protesters in the capital of Manama killed four and injured hundreds, Bahrain's government has emerged as surpisingly less moderate than the Obama administration had estimated a few months ago.