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

To: Katelew who wrote (220011)	2/21/2007 3:07:03 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Why would you think democracy could take root there? It seems obvious that you don't know how or what I think. I have concluded that the time for democracy in the Middle East is not now, may never be for decades, that democracy requires struggle and compromise, and that the prevalent culture sees compromise as dishonor. Hence, it is unlikely that democracy will be a viable system until the cultural norms change, and that is a hard and difficult thing to do. Lebanon had a chance but it got crushed by the Syrians and the Iranians when the Syrians murdered Hariri. Iraq may yet see democracy, but it is going to have to go through the struggle and bloodletting and ultimate exhaustion which are IMO a prerequisite to democratic compromises. Iran, if you believe Sun Tzu's lies, is already a Danish-style democracy. We cannot, however, simply leave Iraq. Not at this point. It would be reckless and irresponsible.

To: Katelew who wrote (220011)	2/21/2007 3:10:33 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Arab politics is on a path to catastrophe. For many long years we were content to treat the ME as a gas station, prop up whoever was in charge so long as the oil flowed. But those in charge just got worse, all their ideas - fascism, socialism, pan-Arabism - failed and left everyone worse off, behind the rest of the world and unable to deal with the shame of it. Meanwhile no legitimate political discussion was even allowed, except in the mosque, which paved the way for the rise of Islamism, which is basically 20th century totalitarianism wrapping itself in the green flag of Islam. An aggressive ideology that cannot run a modern state, it has no choice but to wage the jihad that is central to its ideology. Then 9/11 happened, and Western leaders saw that the catastrophe of the Arab and Persian lands would not be limited to them, but would be exported to Europe and America. The struggles in Iraq and Lebanon are an attempt to create a functioning political system somewhere in Arab countries, so that people have a choice besides corrupt autocrats and Islamo-fascists.