President Obama's Full Speech on Mideast Policy ...

May 19, 2011

Arab Spring is a term that was used beginning in March 2005 by numerous media commentators to suggest that a spin-off benefit of the invasion of Iraq would be the flowering of Western-friendly Middle East democracies.

The term took on a new meaning in 2011, as democratic uprisings independently arose and spread across the Arab world

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Arab_Spring