THEY AREN'T MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE (via Tom Morin):

A Better Idea: Promote democracy and prevent terrorism--but don't conflate the two. (FRANCIS FUKUYAMA AND ADAM GARFINKLE, March 27, 2006, Opinion Journal)

Just as it proved possible to stigmatize and eventually eliminate slavery from mainstream global norms without having first to wait for the mass advent of liberal democracy, it should be possible to effectively stigmatize jihadi terrorism without having first to midwife democracies from Morocco to Bangladesh. The United States and its Western allies should be helping genuine, traditional and pious Muslims to reassert their dominance over a beautiful and capacious religious civilization in the face of a well-financed assault by extremist thugs. (This, of course, is not a new idea, but we have barely begun to take its implementation seriously.) We should also be vigorously supporting the Danes and genuine European liberals when they are attacked by illiberal and violent Islamists.

Promoting liberal and democratic institutions in the Middle East should be decoupled from this fight, since it is a much more long-term project--and a project in need of significant redesign.

It's a problematic essay in general, but two specific points here: (1) ending slavery even in the world's leading democracy required regime change; and (2) why shouldn't people in an undemocratic state resort to terrorism against their government?

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 8, 2006 6:09 AM