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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (8986)	11/6/2001 2:56:21 AM
From: D. Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Of course, given the horrendous cultural values many of these middle eastern nations exhibit (like female circumcision), democracy might be the scariest thing to instill in them... Off the topic, but this raises some serious questions. Given the success rate of other former colonial states with democracy where there is no established democratic tradition, do we really want to give up our favorite dictators in the Middle East? Some are going to pounce on me for that, but hey. Look at Kenya. Not pretty. Rwanda. Even uglier. We can go on and on. Fact of the matter is the Arab world has never had democracy or firm republican traditions. The model of autocracy isn't called "oriental despotism" for nothing. Now, considering the uncomfortable cultural values and beliefs in the region, is it really in our interest to give the "Arab street" more power over governments than it already has? Would we consider such a state of affairs even DANGEROUS? 1979 wasn't what I would consider a watershed in muslim republicanism that we could stomach. And Iranians were educated... Derek