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

To: LindyBill who wrote (79068)	3/2/2003 4:11:45 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Respond to of 281500

<Would an open election in Egypt bring their Mullahs to power, "Al la Iran?> Yes, that's the central fallacy in this campaign to spread democracy throughout the Middle East. What we have now, is a group of mostly secular authoritarian regimes (I'd use the term fascist, using the narrow non-just-a-curse definition of the word), in Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Kuwait, Pakistan, others. They pander to Islam, to various degrees, but they are not Islamist. If those governments fall, the alternative is not a secular democratic government. Rather, the alternative is Islamist, anti-American, and still more authoritarian. When the Generals held an election in Algeria, the Islamists won. When the Generals allowed an election in Turkey (the most secularized Muslim nation in the Middle East), the Islamists won. The Realists say, "OK, then just keep propping up the Generals". The NeoCons say, "if we show enough resolve, and spend enough soldiers and dollars, they can teach anyone to be prosperous peaceful democrats (little d only)." The Idealists and Pacifists say, "We can finesse anything if we talk about it long enough." The Hegemonists say, "We can bludgeon them all into submission."