By Brigitte Nacos
"It is time for a new Middle East. It is time to say to those that don't want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail." That's what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during her stop in Jerusalem. But her and the neo-conservative ideal of remaking the Middle East in the image of Western-style democracy, if needed by force, is paved with questionable results and prospects. Dr. Rice spoke of the need to protect Lebanon's young democracy. Well--that democracy has brought the terrorist organization Hezbollah into both the legislature and the cabinet. In the Palestinian territories, free elections put the terrorist organization Hamas in charge of the government. If free elections were held tomorrow in Saudi-Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, or elsewhere in the region, the supporters of Islamic republics a la Iran would prevail. And Iraq's prospects do not look promising either.
More democracies like those in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories in the region would mean more anti-Israeli, anti-American, anti-Western regimes. And the idea that democracy and freedom will defeat the most serious terrorist threat of our time is utopian. The bottom line is that the West cannot and should not force its values and forms of government onto non-Western countries and regions--certainly not by violent means--just as the West should not curb its values, when they come under attack from those with different cultural, religious, and political backgrounds.
Instead of dreaming of a new, democratic Middle East, Dr. Rice should work with other governments to end the current war between Israel and Hezbollah and assemble an international military force (without U.S. participation) with combat capabilities to be put into a Southern Lebanese buffer zone so that Hezbollah cannot resume its hostilities. It is telling that Israel signaled its willingness to accept such an international force and that Hezbollah did not.
Actually, international peace-keepers with teeth may also be needed to finally achieve the two state solution in the long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
"Fiasco of budding democracies in Mideast" is the most rational, intelligent, succint synopsis of the whole damn mess that I have ever read!
Posted by: John Burkitt | August 15, 2006 at 01:23 PM