October 13, 2004
A ROAD AND A ROADBLOCK:
Bush, Kerry: different lanes on road to a free world (John Hughes, 10/13/04, CS Monitor)
Every year at about this time a map arrives on my desk from New York-based Freedom House, depicting how freedom is faring around the world."Free" and "partly free" countries are colored in green or yellow. "Not free" countries show up in purple. Predictably, North America and most of Latin America, as well as Europe, Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and much of Asia, look good. But a broad swath of Africa through the Arab world and across into China and North Korea is in purple - countries not yet free. [...]
President Bush is unapologetic about moving on faulty weapons intelligence, and sees the overthrow of Saddam Hussein as part of a militant, near-religious vision to bring liberty to the unfree nations of the world. In an analysis of Kerry's foreign policy views in The New York Times Magazine last weekend, writer Matt Bai says that in the first debate, Bush seemed "to be looking at the world from a much higher altitude." In Bush's view, "America is the world's great force for freedom, unsparing in its use of preemptive might and unstinting in its determination to stamp out tyranny and terrorism." Kerry, by contrast, "seemed to offer no grand thematic equivalent."
Kerry rejects the "premise of viral democracy, particularly when the virus is introduced at gunpoint." The Times article suggests that if forced democracy is Bush's panacea for the world's ills, then Kerry's is diplomacy. "Kerry mentions the importance of cooperating with the world community so often that some of his strongest supporters wish he would ease up a bit," it states. Joe Biden, perhaps Kerry's closest friend in the Senate, is quoted in the Times article as despairing, "When people hear multilateral, they think multi-mush."
From Bush: militant pursuit of democracy. From Kerry: a more complex approach to what he sees as a more complex world. A clear distinction in their approaches.
It's not so much complexity as a willingness to trade their freedom for stability, Kerry Says Global Democracy Is Not His Top Issue Democratic (Glenn Kessler, May 29, 2004, Washington Post)
Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that as president he would play down the promotion of democracy as a leading goal in dealing with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Russia, instead focusing on other objectives that he said are more central to the United States' security.
Since the notion is that their oppression enhances our security it's not an ineffectual political argument--hard to see why, other than the twinges of conscience and its obvious anti-Americanism, folks are so afraid to spell it out clearly. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 13, 2004 2:45 PM
Mr. Judd;
Didn't the conservatives spell it out during the Cold War with the phrase "He may be a bastard, but he's our bastard"?
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at October 13, 2004 3:02 PMCan someone explain to me the logic of the phrase "forced democracy?" Democracy is, by definition, the rule of the people. You don't force it, you remove obstacles to it. No one had a gun to the heads of the Afghans who voted. In fact, it was the other way around. Yet presumably Kerry would refer to this as "Democracy at the barrel of a gun." It makes no sense.
Posted by: Timothy at October 13, 2004 3:07 PMAnnoying Old Guy--
Yes, but those who view themselves as liberals would be a bit ashamed being that honest.
Posted by: John Thacker at October 13, 2004 3:39 PMThese days, isn't "honest liberal" one of those oxymorons like "military intellegence" or "fun run"?
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at October 13, 2004 3:45 PMWasn't "the notion ... that their oppression enhances our security" during the Cold War one of the things that gave us the screwed-up Middle East that spawned 9/11?
Posted by: Ken at October 13, 2004 4:03 PMAOG:
Amusing that the first use of that phrase was from FDR, to describe Somoza (but he called him an SOB).
I also am baffled that Kerry calls most all our allies "the bribed and coerced", when he says that HE would offer more. Some of the statements he has made during the debates have been just downright silly, in a ponderous sort of way. Biden is right - all of Kerry's multi-lateral talk is going to add up to a lot of people voting for Bush.
Posted by: jim hamlen at October 13, 2004 4:16 PMThe current reality is that whenever free elections have been tried in the Arab world, the voters have chosen the psycho Islamist whack-jobs. Now, if we can get around that in Iraq without perverting the process, that will be something special and I will be appropriately surprised and impressed.
Posted by: Bart at October 13, 2004 4:42 PMNot, so
Yudhoyono wins Indonesia election Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won Indonesia's presidential election run-off in a landslide, capping a rapid rise to power for the former general who has vowed to create jobs, stamp out graft and fight terrorism. Posted by: David Reeves at October 13, 2004 5:32 PMIndonesia isn't Arab. Of course, the list of open elections in the Arab world is a very, very short one.
Posted by: brian at October 13, 2004 5:39 PMAnd up until now, the only choices in Arab politics have been the Saddams or the Taliban.
I think it's partially due to Islam and partially due to Arab tribal culture. Islam came out of Arab tribal culture and is optimized for Arab tribesmen. Including locking in all aspects of that tribal culture -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- as Divine fiat.
A lot of the doctrines and dogma that may have made sense (and even gave an advantage) for small tribes wandering around the Arabian desert with raid-and-pillage economies don't scale up too well for large settled nations with higher tech, and the micromanaging detail of Islam's holy books do not adapt well to changing conditions. (Sort of Sola Scriptura turning into the Literalist Heresy. Even if you adapt it for modern conditions, the literal text of the SCRIPTURE! pulls you back to the Old Tribal Ways.)
Add to this that (unlike Christianity) Islam started out with an unbroken run of success and political/military power before stagnating and getting superseded by the West. (Like much of the Third World, literally blindsided during Europe's ascendancy to the Age of Empires.) This is a classic setup for a Grievance Culture, one defined by and consumed with hatred and revenge:
1) Once we were Masters of the Universe.
2) Then THEY (the Infidels) took it all away from us.
3) It's Payback Time -- JIHAD!
Indonesia and Turkey are Muslim, but they are not Arabs. (Though Islam by origin and definiton remains Arab-centric.) Perhaps the combination of Islam and Arab tribal culture going synergistic on each other in a "perfect storm" is why "in the Arab world, the voters have chosen the psycho Islamist whack-jobs".
Posted by: Ken at October 13, 2004 7:32 PM"A lot of the doctrines and dogma that may have made sense (and even gave an advantage) for small tribes wandering around the Arabian desert with raid-and-pillage economies don't scale up too well for large settled nations with higher tech, and the micromanaging detail of Islam's holy books do not adapt well to changing conditions"
I don't know where you get that from. I don't know of any Muslim who lives a micro-managed life. There's a few guidelines which are mandatory to follow and easy enough to perform and a whole load of stuff that's recommended but optional.
And I'm not sure if Arab tribal culture is as much to blame as the pre-existing set-up of ME civilisations whereby heavily centralised and autocratic government has been the norm for millenia.
I think the Arabs are too mental over Israel and too inimical to the West to hold out much hope for them although a democratic Iraq might be a big spur to reform. I'd expect Indonesia, Turkey, Malaysia, Bangladesh and most of the other non-Arab nations to cobble together some sort of reasonable compromise of Islamic social norms and democracy.
Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at October 14, 2004 4:48 AM"Joe Biden, perhaps Kerry's closest friend in the Senate,.."
Shouldn't that read "Joe Biden, perhaps the closest thing to a friend that Kerry has in the Senate,.."
Posted by: Robert Duquette at October 16, 2004 8:58 AM