LET'S ROLL:

Free at last through an Arab-Western joint venture (Rami G. Khouri, March 02, 2005, Daily Star)

The brisk pace of domestic political change towards more freedom and democracy in several parts of the Arab world this week has already triggered a passionate argument about whether this is the result of the American-led invasion of Iraq or is more of a home-grown, indigenous Arab phenomenon. This fascinating and emotional debate is something of a sideshow and a wasteful diversion of energy. We would all be better off to argue less about who is responsible for the fresh democratic impulses in the Arab world, and instead work together more diligently to keep the process moving forward. [...]

[I]t is fair to acknowledge that the presence of the U.S. and other foreign forces in Iraq also certainly has played a role in focusing the minds of various Arab leaders on their need to change and modernize quickly - partly because of pressures from their own people as well as diplomatic and even military pressures from Western countries and the UN. The balance sheet of Arab political transformation due to indigenous demands or foreign pressures is rather even. [...]

The urgent, significant, unprecedented political reality now is that ordinary Arabs, the U.S. government, and like-minded European allies may share mutually advantageous common goals and a good reason to work together to achieve them. The imperative would seem to be for Arabs, Americans and Europeans to grab that opportunity and find a way to overcome past rancor and resentment, and instead join forces for a great transformation in the three principal issues at play here: the nature of Arab governance, the relationship of Israel with the Arabs, and the manner of American interaction with the Arab world.

The goals to work for are about promoting more open, democratic, responsive, accountable governance systems in the Arab world, which would go a long way to reducing a major cause of terrorism; pushing for comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace that treats Israelis and Palestinians according to the same standards of law, rights and morality, reducing another prime issue that stokes the deviant passions of terrorists; and, inducing the United States to use law and diplomacy rather than its armed forces and preemptive war and regime change, as core instruments of its foreign policy in the Arab world and the wider Middle East - yet another way of reducing the attraction of terror as the tactic of choice for some disenchanted and dehumanized young men in the Arab and Asian region.

Events will move quickly in the coming months and years, as the Arab people and foreign powers push to improve existing Arab governing norms and policies. This can be a historic moment for mutually welcome change, if Arabs across the region and their partners abroad work together to define the goals of change and how to achieve them. This has never happened in recent memory, which is why it is important now to focus on what needs to be done by all concerned parties, rather than argue about who started the ball rolling. We both did. Let's keep it rolling, so that all Arabs, like their counterparts in other lands, can be free at last.

Indeed, the point is that, contrary to Realist cant, Arabs/Muslims want freedom and economic development just like everyone else.

MORE:
Arab world watching Lebanon's protests (DONNA ABU-NASR, March 2, 2005, AP)

It was a scene the Arab world's dictators have dreaded -- and through the power of satellite TV, it could catch on fast: Peaceful, enormous crowds carrying flags and flowers bringing down a government.

What happened in Lebanon this week, analysts say, is the beginning of a new era in the Middle East, one in which popular demand pushes the momentum for democracy and the people's will can no longer be disregarded. [...]

TV broadcast Beirut's protests into homes, coffee shops and clubs across the Middle East. The coverage culminated with the Syrian-backed government's resignation.

Inevitably, it raised the question among many spectators: What about here?

''I wish this could happen in Yemen,'' Ahmed Murtada, an unemployed Yemeni, said in San'a.

Make it.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 2, 2005 7:52 AM