March 2, 2004
WE THINK THE REFORMATION'S GRAND...:
U.S. Readies Push for Mideast Democracy Plan (Robin Wright, February 28, 2004, Washington Post)
The United States will launch a diplomatic drive next week to win support for its new democracy initiative in the Arab world, officials said yesterday, sending a senior diplomat on a regionwide tour to convince regimes that have expressed skepticism of the emerging U.S. campaign.The Bush administration's Greater Middle East Initiative, the most ambitious U.S. democracy effort since the end of the Cold War, encompasses a wide range of diplomatic, cultural and economic measures, according to a draft of the plan. [...]
An eight-page draft of the plan -- a version of which was first published on the Web site of the London newspaper Al Hayat -- calls for the G-8 to forge a long-term partnership with the region's "reform leaders" to launch a "coordinated response" to promote democratic change. It outlines a wide range of actions the West would foster.
On elections, the working draft calls for assistance in civic education, the creation of independent election commissions, and voter registration, particularly of women. To press judicial reforms, the West could create or fund legal defense centers to provide advice on civil, criminal or Islamic law and access to defense lawyers.
To generate new independent interest groups, the United States and its European allies could increase funding of democracy, human rights, media, women's and other groups, as well as train groups in defining agendas, lobbying governments and developing strategies.
On education, the goal should be to complement the U.N. program aimed at cutting the illiteracy rate in half by 2010, the report said, with special emphasis on providing computer technology to schools and on teacher-training institutes to target women. The goal would be to train a "literacy corps" of about 100,000 female teachers by 2008.
The preliminary draft also lays out wide-ranging economic goals, including G-8 funding for a Greater Middle East Finance Corp., modeled on the International Finance Corp., to foster new medium-size and large businesses. It also suggests that providing $500 million in micro-loans -- of about $400 each -- would spur 1.2 million small entrepreneurs out of poverty.
"Closing the Greater Middle East region's prosperity gap will require an economic transformation similar in magnitude to that undertaken by the formerly communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe," the draft says.
The possibility exists that George W. Bush will one day be seen as the second most important figure in Islamic history. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 2, 2004 8:50 AM
This is a brilliant plan; Mentors are exactly what's needed.
"Micro-loan" programmes seem to work well in South America and Africa, and I'm glad to see that they're included in this plan.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at March 2, 2004 10:07 AMPresident Bush understands that you make more progress with assistance and a gun that you do with assistance alone.
My wife and agreed shortly after 9/11 that Mr. Bush had it within his grasp to become our third greatest president, after Washington and Lincoln, if he can serve two terms. So far, so good overall.
And yes, OJ has convinced me that FDR is not deserving of this group.
Posted by: Rick T. at March 2, 2004 1:26 PMMy laugh for the week:
Monday, Sunni mullahs issue fatwa against blowing up other Muslims.
Tuesday, Sunnis blow up Shias on holiest day of the year.
I'd hold off on the crown of laurels for Bush a bit yet.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at March 2, 2004 2:14 PMHarry:
No wonder you're always so confused, living only in the moment.
Posted by: oj at March 2, 2004 3:13 PMHarry:
What an odd sense of humor. And it is a marathon only part way finished, not a sprint, so I have awarded no crown of laurels yet.
Posted by: Rick T. at March 2, 2004 3:34 PMHarry --
And in any event, if -- I infer from your post -- is what you think Muslims are too prone to do to others and to each other if left to themselves...then W. is indeed the only hope they (and we) have. Better oj be right than wrong because I ain't seeing the alternatives from you, from JF*k#" Kerry, or from Kofi.
Posted by: MG at March 2, 2004 3:52 PMWhichever way Iraq turns out, Bush will have succeeded. His primary goal all along was to stop them from posing a threat to the US. If they can transform to a free society, too, all the better. But even if they decend back into a Iran-style hellhole, they'll know better than to threaten us.
Posted by: ray at March 2, 2004 8:13 PMYou got it completely, MG. I am on record as saying Muslims are incapable of self-government.
Maybe I'll be wrong in the long run, but in the short run (last 1,400 years) I'm golden.
I hope I'm wrong and Bush gets his laurels. But I don't think I'm wrong.
And I find events so far very, very funny. Gee, maybe they could have found a better use for their time than spending a thousand weekends chanting death to Harry.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at March 2, 2004 8:22 PMOttoman Turkey's done as well as any Western nation over its lifetime.
Posted by: oj at March 2, 2004 8:31 PMBush's laurels may come after he is dead, it is only through the passing of many decades that we will know the lasting results of his actions. I am optimistic, I think that he is the right man at the right time. The timing is righr for an agressive plan like this, because we now have no rival on the world stage that can counter us. We are not forced to look at countries and regions as geo-political chessmen, but can afford to indulge them with our idealism.
Iraq is the first of the falling dominoes in the Middle East. By the end of his second term, I would expect to see new regimes in Iran, Syria and possibly Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at March 2, 2004 10:16 PMRobert:
Any new Arabian regime, in the next four years, would be far more hostile to the US than the current one.
It'll be a long, long time before there's a possibility for peaceful transition in Arabia.
Unless you just mean some power being given to some sort of elected assembly, in which case I agree.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at March 2, 2004 10:30 PM