THE CASE FOR FREEDOM: Democracy hasn't failed in the Middle East. Rather, it has hardly been attempted, let alone defended, despite the Bush administration's commitments and correct understanding of its indispensability to U.S. national security.
DERMER, NATAN SHARANSKY AND RON
28 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 2007 N HIS FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, George W. Bush offered no sign of the sweeping democracy rhetoric that has marked his presidency, limiting himself only to...
...ARMY (RET...
...ARE SOME PEOPLES OR CULTURES simply incompatible with democratic life...
...The fires of hatred kindled in fear societies once moved no faster than the speed of a horse...
...Though President Bush has used his pulpit to speak directly to Iranian democrats and has called for the release of prominent Iranian dissidents, his administration has not provided any meaningful financial support to them...
...in fear societies, people depend on their leaders...
...On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah crossed an internationally recognized borof its weak economy...
...Colonel David Hunt’s book is a call to arms and a gut check...
...This support is sorely needed since Hezbollah continues to violate last summer’s cease-fire by replenishing its weapons stocks and is actively trying to oust Lebanon’s democratically minded government...
...But in briefly surveying the places in the region where democracy has ostensibly been put to the test, what one sees is not that democracy has failed but rather that it has been rarely pursued in practice...
...Is a Democratic Middle East Possible...
...Bernard Lewis, perhaps the foremost authority on Islam, explains the growth of Wahabbism: Imagine that the Ku Klux Klan gets total control of Texas, and that the Ku Klux Klan has at its disposal all the oil rigs in Texas...
...Many will similarly dismiss Alusi as a lone voice in a sea of fanaticism...
...Democratic reformers facing repression, prison, or exile can know: America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country...
...The borders that are meant to unite Iraqis reflect the marking of British imperialists, not the history or heritage of an “Iraqi nation...
...Islamists, unlike Americans, are not shy about exporting their values...
...But like all peoples liberated from tyranny, most Iraqis will never want to be slaves again...
...President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an apocalyptic fanatic who believes it is his duty to hasten the arrival of the Shiite Messiah, brazenly denies the Holocaust and pledges to “wipe Israel off the map...
...Army and extensive experience in counterterrorism, special operations and intelligence operations...
...There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom...
...If instead of simply holding an election, a multi-year effort had been made to institute real democratic reforms, detoxify a poisoned population, and dismantle refugee camps, a genuine peace process could have begun...
...To be sure, the alienation felt by many Muslim immigrants in the West, which has made them easy prey for Islamist preachers, appears to have little to do with the state of democracy in the Middle East...
...If the Middle East were free, fewer would turn to the mosque for solutions to the region’s lack of development because there would be development...
...This formula has proven effective for Shiite and Sunni fundamentalist groups alike...
...Ron Dermer currently serves as Israel’s Minister of Economic Affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington...
...BOB DRURY, coauthor of Halsey’s Typhoon “Colonel Hunt is on top of his game...
...To call countries that 36 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 2007 NATAN SHARANSKY AND RON DERMER have no respect for human rights “moderate” is to abandon the moral clarity that will be essential if we are serious about “ending tyranny in our world...
...Many see Islamic fanaticism as the “deepest source” of the problem...
...For men like Alusi to succeed, security must be restored, those inside Iraq determined to underenemies of freedom alone...
...But this is not simply a homegrown phenomenon...
...But by what possible definition can anyone call the Saudi regime moderate...
...supported its inclusion in a national unity government...
...But did Stalin’s shared interest with the West in confronting Hitler make him a “moderate...
...A few hours after the attack, Alusi had this to say on Radio Free Europe: Again, henchmen of the Ba’ath [Party] and dirty terrorist gangs, Al-Qaeda and others, are going out convinced that they can determine life and death as they desire.… We will not, [I swear] by God, hand Iraq over to murderers and terrorists...
...Iran has also been working to undermine coalition efforts in Iraq...
...In the Cedar Revolution that followed, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese demonstrated against Assad’s regime demanding that it end its three-decade occupation of Lebanon...
...The man who had once called for a “humble” foreign policy had now committed America to “ending tyranny in our world...
...But is President Bush correct...
...In 2004, he co-authored with Sharansky the best-selling book The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror...
...We also hope that his successor, Republican or Democrat, will possess similar foresight and courage...
...And they use this money to set up a well-endowed network of colleges and schools throughout Christendom, peddling their peculiar brand of Christianity...
...Rick Santorum tried to pass legislation last year earmarking $100 million for the Iranian democratic opposition, the State Department actively campaigned to defeat it...
...Exerting this control becomes increasingly difficult as popular discontent invariably grows over time...
...Even those fervently committed to a goal can have strong disagreements over the best way to achieve it...
...in confronting Iran...
...Today, after four years, 3,000 American casualties, tens of thousands of Iraqi has not abandoned them to face the dead, hundreds of billions of dollars expended, and sectarian violence that shows no signs of abating, many believe that the prospects for a democratic Iraq have never been dimmer...
...proudly displayed their purple fingers after vot-Democracy in Iraq is possible because ing in the Arab world’s first democratic elections...
...28 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 2007 N HIS FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, George W. Bush offered no sign of the sweeping democracy rhetoric that has marked his presidency, limiting himself only to this detached observation: “Through much of the last century, America’s faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea...
...In the resulting war, 4,000 missiles were fired at Israel, and 150 Israelis were killed...
...Would bringing democracy to the Middle East end the Islamist threat in France, Holland, or Britain...
...Yet there are few places in the world more ripe for democratic change than Iran...
...In fear societies, leaders stay in power by retaining control over their populations...
...Yet there are few places in the world more ripe for democratic change than Iran...
...A closer inspection of Bush’s speech reveals the post-9/11 logic behind the democracy policy: We have seen our vulnerability—and we have seen its deepest source [emphasis added...
...Admittedly, everywhere one looks, from Bali to Baghdad, from Jerusalem to Madrid, from London to New York, terrorism is perpetrated in the name of Islam...
...Some have argued for a “friendly strongman” who will keep Iraq united and “stable...
...But just as the best experts were wrong when they insisted that democracy would never take root in Germany, Japan, Spain, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union, those who believe it cannot take root in the Middle East will be proven wrong as well...
...He has served in various ministerial capacities in four Israeli governments, including Deputy Prime Minister...
...They did so not only by rebuilding their defenses but also by linking the relationship with the Soviet Union to the question of human rights...
...For most of the problems today are not evidence that Arabs are incapable of building free societies but rather evidence that such societies would pose a mortal threat to the forces of tyranny and terror in the region...
...BILL O’REILLY, Fox News Channel “[A] great book...
...Unlike most of his Democratic and Republican predecessors who thought promoting democracy abroad was consonant with American values but not necessarily with American interests, President Bush called the advance of freedom “an urgent requirement of our nation’s security...
...Exerting this control becomes increasingly difficult as popular discontent invariably grows over time...
...Yet the provision of these services comes with a heavy price tag...
...When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you...
...The new president did warn “the enemies of liberty” that America was committed to “shaping a balance of power that favors freedom,” but couched in language that could have been penned in any European foreign office, Bush’s words ruffled no feathers...
...The difference lies instead in the systems in which these leaders operate: In free societies, leaders depend on the people...
...In the case of Saudi Arabia, a regime without popular support has bought its legitimacy by the Reign of Terror or two centuries of slavery meant that the French or Americans were incapable of building a free society...
...Five years after boldly breaking with an Oslo logic that ignored democracy, is the Bush administration now placing its faith in the most anti-democratic regime in the region to implement Bush’s vision of two democratic states living side by side...
...President Bush can certainly be criticized for not forging a bipartisan consensus around his democracy agenda, especially given how vital he believes that agenda is to American security...
...Sure, the Soviet economy was weak, but non-democratic regimes have been able to rule weak economies without collapsing for decades (North Korea and Cuba are but two examples...
...So too, America’s most powerful weapon today against Tehran is the Iranian people...
...have prosecuted the war on terror differently...
...When former Pennsylvania Sen...
...Couldn’t the U.S...
...Like many protesters, he assumed that America would not allow the Syrians to do what the Chinese had done 15 years earlier to pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square...
...We are led by events and common sense to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands...
...We will not allow Iraq to become a tool in the hands of others...
...Emphasis added.] But as Bush conditioned American support for Palestinian statehood on the Palestinians’ willingness to build a free society, his administration helped formulate a Road Map that precluded any such possibility...
...But the question of whether Bosnians, Serbs and Croats could build free societies was a separate question from whether they were willing to live in one country...
...Lebanon LEBANON REPRESENTS both America’s greatest success and greatest failure: success, because nowhere was the United States able to effect such dramatic change with so little effort...
...They recognized that the greatest weapon in the West’s arsenal was the desire for freedom burning inside those behind the Iron Curtain...
...Rather, it has hardly been attempted, let alone defended, despite the Bush administration’s commitments and correct understanding of its indispensability to U.S...
...On the contrary, it was based on the idea that a strong dictator was critical to peace...
...Mr...
...Undoubtedly, until Arabs build a successful democratic polity, skepticism will remain...
...If President Bush is right that the “mortal threats” to his country come from “regions that simmer in resentment and tyranny,” the question of keeping Iraq together is much less important than the question of whether those who live on its territory are able to live in free societies...
...The opinions expressed in this series are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation...
...He is currently the chairman of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem...
...NATAN SHARANSKY AND RON DERMER Iraq RIGHT OR WRONG, the central theater for testing a vision of a democratic Middle East is Iraq...
...In the end, the United States may decide to work temporarily with some non-democratic regimes in an effort to confront even greater and more immediate threats to its security...
...In fear societies, leaders stay in power by retaining control over their populations...
...Not only is much of the growth of Islamism in the West fueled by forces that originate in the Middle East, the strength of those forces is directly related to the freedom deficit in the region...
...Moderation is a function of the degree of freedom a regime affords its citizens...
...HOW TO WAKE UP WASHINGTON AND WIN THE WAR ON TERROR FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THEY JUST DON’T GET IT An acclaimed Fox News military analyst, David Hunt earned his stripes with 29 years in the U.S...
...And in our book, published 32 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 2007 Had elections been held in 1945 or 1946, the results probably would have undermined efforts to build German democracy, something those who hope to build democratic societies in Afghanistan and Iraq would be wise to keep in mind… In short, the election of Hamas was the logical consequence of a decade-old failure to help Palestinians build a free society...
...What About Islam...
...In building schools, running health clinics, and providing food for the poor, Islamist groups have stepped into the vacuum and increased their support dramatically...
...Because of the rights it affords women...
...If we spoke to the Soviets,” their argument goes, “we should speak to the Iranians...
...Most important, the capacity of mosques and madrasses to indoctrinate the masses would be seriously diminished...
...Each community has genuine reasons to fear a break-up of Iraq: Shiites fear domination by a theocratic Iran, Sunnis fear being cut off from oil MAY 2007 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 35 THE CASE FOR FREEDOM reserves in the south, and Kurds fear a potential They counsel backing friendly dictators and calibratTurkish invasion...
...Democracy in Iraq is possible because so many Iraqis want to be free and because the leader of the free world has not abandoned them to face the enemies of freedom alone...
...Surely, there is no single formula for success that will work in every place at every time...
...supporting Wahhabism inside the Kingdom and by financing its export...
...The Saudis, as well as the regimes in Egypt and Jordan, do share an interest with America in confronting a growing Iranian menace...
...If the Middle East were free, fewer would turn to the mosque for solutions to the region’s lack of development because there would be development...
...national security...
...For Ahmadinejad and the Iranian mullahs, who ask their adherents to “imagine a world without America,” the United States is the “Great Satan...
...But what brought Hamas to power was not democracy but the foolish decision to hold quick elections in a fear society in the wake of a misguided withdrawal...
...NATAN SHARANSKY AND RON DERMER If the free world, led by the United States, begins to insist that success in its relations with the Palestinians “requires the decent treatment of their own people,” and if democratic Palestinian reformers, of which there are many, believe that America regards them as “the future leaders of [their] free country,” a real peace process can finally begin...
...Though the region’s secular autocrats and religious fanatics differ on the appropriate solution to their problems, they largely agree on who is to blame...
...Many today believe that the collapse of The failure to confront Hezbollah would the Soviet Union was inevitable because prove costly...
...It is interesting that der, kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, killed none of the so-called experts predicted several others, and fired rockets on Israeli the inevitable before it happened...
...According to his twisted worldview, Israel, “the little Satan,” is merely an appetizer...
...Palestinian-Controlled Territories IRONICALLY, THE IMPORTANCE of building free societies has been most thoroughly ignored on Israel’s own democratic doorstep...
...so many Iraqis want to be free and But time after time, violence dashed hopes of a because the leader of the free world better future...
...Because Wahhabism promotes world peace...
...The dangers of holding an election before reforms were implemented in a corrupt society poisoned by incitement were plain to see...
...It last held sway on September 10, 2001, and was jettisoned only after a horrific is for America to simply turn its back on attack discredited the status quo in the Middle East...
...Such was the basis of the WWII alliance with Stalin and with America’s support for some dictatorships during the Cold War...
...Today, they move as fast as a commercial jet or supersonic missile...
...Yet look at what has happened since 9/11...
...Within a month, the Syrian military was forced to leave...
...The shock waves of that victory would reverberate for decades to come, emboldening terrorists, strengthening tyrants, undermining America’s allies, and, ultimately, endangering America...
...Though Stalin, Hitler, and Saddam ruled very different countries representing vastly diverse cultures, they all understood that manMAY 2007 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 29 THE CASE FOR FREEDOM ufacturing enemies was critical to maintaining their grip on power—an understanding not lost on the likes of Kim Jong-il, Bashar Assad, and Fidel Castro...
...If the Palestinian people actively pursue these goals, America and the world will actively support their efforts.… If Palestinians embrace democracy, confront corruption and firmly reject terror, they can count on American support for the creation of a provisional state of Palestine...
...Nearly three decades after the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian people are nearly all doublethinkers...
...The difference is this: When the Solidarity Move ment emerged, its leaders became heroes in the West, won a Nobel Prize, and the Pope championed their cause...
...If this is the price for “stability” and unity, its price is far too high for Iraqis, for their neighbors, and for the world...
...Instead, Hezbollah was allowed to participate in elections, and the U.S...
...Just because most Iraqi Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds want to live free does not necessarily mean that they want to live together...
...Iran THE REGIME IN TEHRAN is one of the most dangerous in the world...
...As former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin put it, Arafat would confront Hamas without the constraints of “a SuMAY 2007 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 31 THE CASE FOR FREEDOM preme Court, human rights organizations and all more than a year before Hamas came to power, we kinds of bleeding heart liberals...
...In his second inaugural, however, President Bush championed democracy as few leaders ever have, pledging that America would “seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world...
...Israel responded by targeting Hezb ollah missile batteries, strongholds, and fighters...
...Instead, the administration appears headed back down the path of Oslo by facilitating the latest diplomatic initiative, the so-called Saudi peace plan...
...Restating the Case for Democracy THE MECHANICS OF TYRANNY in “fear” societies, where meaningful dissent is not permitted, translates into terror both inside and outside those societies...
...The president based his democracy initiative on the conviction that what had led to 9/11, and what continued to pose a “mortal threat” to the United States, was a byproduct of non-democratic rule...
...The free world must make clear to Ahmadinejad that his regime will get no legitimacy and no economMAY 2007 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 33 THE CASE FOR FREEDOM ic support if it continues its current policies...
...In fact, four years before those elections, we warned against the Road Map’s provision for quick elections: “Rather than call for elections at the beginning of the process of reform,” we wrote, “elections must only come after that process is well underway...
...Bush deserves much credit for recognizing how important spreading democracy in the Middle East is to the security of his country and the world, and any criticism we have about the failure to consistently and forcefully implement the democracy agenda is tempered by our appreciation for his having embraced such an agenda in the first place...
...When it comes to the Middle East, this view pits so-called “moderate” regimes like Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, as well as Palestinian president Abu Mazen, against the extremist regimes in Tehran and Damascus and extremist organizations like al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas...
...If not, all efforts to make peace, sincere as they may be, will remain nothing more than an illusion...
...Shiites, Kurds, and Sunnis may yet come to the conclusion that their interests are better served by living together...
...More and more subjects turn from “true believers,” who genuinely support the ideology of the regime, into “doublethinkers,” who parrot that ideology out of fear but no longer believe it...
...Before abandoning democracy in the Middle East, we must recognize that what has made building a free Iraq so difficult is not that Iraqis do not want freedom but rather that the lasting effects of three decades of Saddam’s savage rule, centuries of mistrust between Sunni and Shiites, and an entrenched tribalism that often trumps identity with the Iraqi nationstate have made it difficult for sectarian groups to resolve their differences...
...In free societies, leaders maintain support over time by delivering peace and prosperity...
...Rather than the free world, including Israel, using all of our considerable leverage over a Palestinian regime entirely dependent on our support in order to strengthen Palestinian civil society and improve Palestinian lives, we turned a blind eye as Palestinian civil society was hollowed out, the Palestinian economy was monopolized by thugs, and a generation of Palestinian children were indoctrinated into a culture that glorified martyrdom and death...
...Remarkably, many who seek to “engage” Iran today have used the Cold War to buttress their position...
...While voters will support the deprivations of war if it is absolutely necessary, democratic leaders will not remain in office for long, or will exhaust their political capital very quickly, if they support wars the public does not regard as vital to the national interest...
...I call on the Palestinians to build a practicing democracy, based on tolerance and liberty...
...We certainly hope President Bush’s new plan will succeed in accomplishing these objectives...
...Iran...
...In 2005, two of Alusi’s sons were gunned down in what was one of many attempts on his life...
...The series is supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation...
...But the virulence of the Islamist threat both inside and outside the Middle East is linked to the region’s freedom-deficit...
...We want to build Iraq...
...It is interesting that none of the so-called experts predicted the inevitable before it happened...
...With missiles that can already reach deep into Europe and with the potential to pass nuclear weapons on to proxies like Hezbollah and others, a nuclear Iran would be a danger to the entire free world...
...Nearly three decades after the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian people are nearly all doublethinkers...
...People would not have to go to Islamists to provide basic services because accountable governments would provide those services...
...Study Group that would reward tyrants, court dictators, and abandon democracy, it appears to be the “new” bipartisan consensus...
...This should have been obvious to anyone following what was happening in the Palestinian Authority for the last decade...
...Worse, weapons of mass death magnify the dangers exponentially since today’s petty tyrant or terrorist can cause destruction on a scale that yesterday’s great power could scarcely imagine...
...Should the spark of freedom ignite in the Middle East, the strength of Islamist forces there would be sharply reduced, as would their influence elsewhere...
...This approach is By far the worst of all possible scenarios not new...
...Contrary to popular belief, the key difference between free and fear societies is not the motives of their leaders nor the virtues of their populations: Evil transcends borders, and nearly all those in power are determined to wield it as long as possible...
...But even if those hopes are not fulfilled, American leaders should not make the dangerous mistake of throwing out the democratic baby with the Iraqi bathwater...
...In contrast, the free world has largely ignored the Iranian democratic movement...
...The Czech and Slovak peoples did not want to share a state together, but they still wanted to live apart in freedom...
...We should be under no illusions...
...To keep control over the growing ranks of doublethinkers, and to ensure they do not cross the line into open dissent, the regime must resort to ever stronger means of repression...
...It didn’t...
...But did the horrific carnage of that day necessitate such a dramatic change Democracy hasn’t failed in the Middle East...
...But if the choice is between democracy without Iraq or Iraq without democracy, then Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds would be better served and the security of the world better protected with the former...
...Couldn’t it have ousted the Taliban, or even Saddam Hussein, without replacing them with democratic regimes...
...Luckily for all of us, there is still time to do so...
...The threat once posed by tyranny in one particular region of the world was far less serious than it is today...
...On the Hunt lays out a clear strategy for our survival...
...Yet barely a day goes by when someone does not point out that the election of Hamas proves that the democracy agenda was a catastrophic mistake...
...there has been enough destruction...
...Only three weeks after Bush’s second inaugural address, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated...
...For decades, Saudi Arabia has spread Wahhabism, its radical state-religion, through a network of mosques it finances in Europe, Asia, and even America...
...To Bush, “America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one...
...Today, the Saudis may stand with the U.S...
...Far from providing evidence of the failure of democracy in the Middle East, the three regions above show that a sustained policy of promoting democracy has either been totally rejected (Palestinian areas), largely ignored (Iran), or haphazardly pursued (Lebanon...
...After spending many years sponsoring Islamic Jihad, one of the deadliest Palestinian terror groups, and after trying to send arms to Arafat on the infamous Karine A, Iran has now become a major backer of Hamas...
...The obvious answer is 9/11...
...From the millions of Iraqis who voted despite death threats to the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who initiated the Cedar Revolution to the 4,000 Egyptian judges who bravely challenged authoritarian rule, the last few years have born witness to an unprecedented awakening of freedom in the Arab world...
...The Challenge Ahead IRONICALLY, THE GREATEST CHALLENGE to promoting democracy comes from the land where freedom’s torch has always burned brightest and where, sadly, many have now lost faith in the power of freedom to change the world...
...Now he’s laying it all on the line with a book that strikes at the heart of America’s War on Terror— with blunt talk on what’s wrong, what we have to do, and exactly how we have to do it...
...WE ARE CONVINCED that there is ultimately no alternative to the course President Bush has championed these past few years...
...During the Cold War, many dismissed the voices of dissidents behind the Iron Curtain...
...The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world...
...They kill and imprison dissidents, empower a secret police, and indoctrinate the masses...
...September 11 was supposed to change how most people saw the world...
...They can begin to do that by denying legitimacy to leaders who refuse to end incitement, earmarking funds to help Palestinian businessmen establish an independent economic existence, and mobilizing international support for a program to provide Palestinians living in refugee camps with decent housing...
...Just as Stalin’s cooperation against Hitler did not prevent the Soviet dictator from destroying democracy in Eastern Europe, working with the Saudis to thwart Iranian ambitions will not turn that tyranny into an ally for building democracy in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian-controlled territories, or anywhere else for that matter...
...By calling for elections “as soon as possible” and paying mere lip service to democratic reforms, the Road Map ensured that actual reform would never happen...
...With only a fraction of the resources dedicated elsewhere in the region, America could have helped build a truly free Lebanon, marginalized Hezbollah, and reduced the influence of Iran...
...Thus Hezbollah, financed and supported by Iran and Syria, remained in control of southern Lebanon...
...Islamists use them as conduits for indoctrinating recipients into a twisted view of the world that demonizes Jews, Christians, Israel, America, and the West—propaganda that echoes the poison broadcast daily through the “secular” controlled media...
...By failing to provide their people with freedom and opportunity, by controlling subjects rather than serving citizens, the autocrats that litter the region have encouraged people to turn elsewhere for solutions...
...Like fascism, Islamism is best cultivated in tyranny...
...Not a single non-democratic regime wants America to succeed in advancing democracy because these regimes recognize that their own repressive rule would thereby be endangered...
...in American policy...
...The real threat, they argue, comes not from the authoritarian, secular rule of the Mubaraks, Arafats, and Assads but from the religious fanaticism of al Qaeda, Hamas, and Iran...
...They believed that this time, America would indeed “stand with those who stood for liberty...
...further explained: After the failure of the Camp David talks in the summer of 2000 and the outbreak of the Palestinian Only when the basic institutions that protect a free society are in place—such as a free press, Not a single non-democratic regime the rule of law, independent courts, political wants America to succeed in advancing parties—can free elections be held...
...Tragically, judging from the democracy in Iraq and thereby hand the many recommendations of last year’s Iraq enemies of freedom a great victory...
...For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny—prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder—violence will gather, and multiply in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders and raise a mortal threat...
...Whether those skeptics are called “realists” or something else is immaterial for they all worship the same false god of “stability...
...But America must not forget that these regimes are a danger to their own people and to international peace and security...
...BILL O’REILLY COLONEL DAVID HUNT U.S...
...Worst of all, Iran is feverishly pursuing nuclear weapons...
...When asked how important Bush’s support of democracy was to their efforts, one leading organizer of the rally described it as “absolutely critical...
...We want to build schools for Iraqis, hospitals for Iraqis, and state institutions...
...Alusi will succeed in building a free and united Iraq...
...After defeating Hitler, the United States and allied democracy because these regimes occupation forces wisely decided not to hold recognize that their own repressive rule federal elections in Germany for four years...
...A virulent strain of Islam that has gained much wider currency in the Middle East in the past generation openly seeks to restore Islam’s lost dominance, re-establish the Caliphate, and ultimately subdue the world under Sharia law...
...Iran and Syria are helping to fuel the carnage in Iraq because they correctly understand that America’s victory there would be their defeat...
...In addition to confronting the Iranian terror network, the free world should also subject the regime to international censure (such as trying Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide), and economic pressures (such as divesting from companies that do business in en democratic forces inside Lebanon and to insist that Hezbollah disarm as called for in UN resolution 1559...
...While the regime’s rhetoric is frightening, so too are its actions...
...Find out what it’s really going to take to win the War on Terror...
...Witness Yugoslavia: A country of profound ethnic divisions once held together by a dictator was torn apart by ethnic hatreds...
...If a democratic Iraq is to overcome these obstacles, it will be because of people like Mithal-Al-Alusi, a Sunni Muslim who is a member of Iraq’s new parliament...
...The lesson of Lebanon, then, is not that democracy cannot be built in the Middle East, but rather that it will not be built without a fight...
...With more and more policymakers abandoning the idea of promoting democracy, the American people and free people everywhere are fortunate that the Oval Office is occupied by a man who recognizes that the “survival of liberty at home increasingly depends on the success of liberty abroad...
...Some point to a pervasive sense of defeat inside Japan, a strong middle class in Germany, an educated population in Eastern Europe, or a number of other factors as essential predicates to democracy which are absent in the Middle East today...
...Tomorrow, terrorists educated in its schools or in the madrasses it finances abroad may attack America...
...And all groups have reason to fear ing the proper balance of power that can best prethat Iraq’s break-up will look more like Yugoslavia serve the status quo...
...Because of the religious freedom it permits...
...Just as the collapse of the Soviet Union largely eliminated the dangers of Communist movements around the world, so too when the Islamist threat is eliminated in the region, it will no longer pose a threat to the world...
...STILL, SOME COGNIZANT OF THE THREATS from the region may nonetheless think that focusing on democracy misses the point...
...But while a free Iraq is possible, it is not inevitable...
...Is American security truly endangered by the absence of freedom in the Middle East...
...Though the road to democracy has certainly been rocky, what has happened over the last five years does not mean that Arabs are incapable of building a free society any more than To lose heart about the possibility of a democratic Middle East would be very short-sighted...
...The current attempt to divide the world into moderates and extremists is further evidence of pre9/11 thinking...
...The reason the USSR collapsed is that Reagan and others exploited that weakness by increasing pressure on the regime...
...Similarly, the forces of terror in the region, from al Qaeda to Hezbollah to Hamas, understand that the swamps in which they breed will begin to drain if Afghans, Iraqis, Lebanese, Palestinians, or anyone else can build a free society, and they will do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening...
...But America did not capitalize on the considerable momentum of the Syrian withdrawal to strength 34 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 2007 cities...
...True, every case of democracy’s successful emergence is unique...
...Even in places where ethnic hatreds have been muted, communities have preferred to live separately, such as in Czechoslovakia...
...You 30 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR MAY 2007 NATAN SHARANSKY AND RON DERMER would then have an approximate equivalent to what has happened in the modern Muslim world...
...Unwilling to construct the type of society that would redress grievances peacefully, these regimes specialize in diverting popular discontent by fomenting a fanatical hatred of others and by mobilizing people for war...
...One could hardly think of a more passive image for spreading freedom around the globe...
...Though their rulers’ lengthy tenure and the repression they are willing to countenance make fear societies appear “stable,” they are powder kegs of popular resentment...
...terror war that followed, President Bush boldly decided to break with the logic of Oslo...
...By far the worst of all possible scenarios is for America to simply turn its back on democracy in Iraq and thereby hand the enemies of freedom a great victory...
...Natan Sharanskyis a former political prisoner who spent nine years in the Gulag for his work on behalf of human rights inside the Soviet Union...
...Will the Saudis then cease being “moderates...
...And just as Radio Free Europe and Voice of America once amplified the calls for freedom that were being raised inside the Soviet Union, the same should be done to amplify the calls for freedom inside Iran...
...The question is whether after nearly a century of colonial rule and decades of dictatorship, Iraqis have built a common identity that can withstand the centrifugal pressures of enmity and grievance...
...But the idea that America, and by extension the democratic world, can largely ignore the pathologies that tyranny has bred in the Middle East is a dangerous illusion...
...As former Iranian student leader and political prisoner Amir-Abbas Fakhravar explained, “Iranians themselves need to know that the outside world is interested in them and wants to help them.… Information has to be disbursed so that the people of Tehran will go out in the streets like the people of Lebanon and Ukraine...
...In June 2002, he made clear to the Palestinian leadership “that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people...
...If the Bush administration is serious about the Palestinians building “a practicing democracy, based on tolerance and liberty,” it should be reaching out to the many Palestinian individuals and groups that want to be partners in building such a society...
...There have been moments when that vision seemed closer to fruition, such as when millions of Iraqis mine democracy must be confronted, neighboring regimes sowing chaos must be deterred and al Qaeda terrorists operating in Iraq will have to be brought to justice...
...It provides hundreds of millions of dollars, weapons, and training to Hezbollah, which before 9/11 had the distinction of killing more Americans than any other terror organization...
...But doesn’t the threat from Islamic fanaticism extend beyond the Middle East...
...than Czechoslovakia...
...failure, because rather than help secure Lebanon’s democratic future, America backed away...
...The IED roadside explosives responsible for the majority of American casualties in Iraq are mostly imported from Iran, and the regime sponsors Shiite death squads and radical antiAmerican clerics like Muqhta Al Sadr...
...Today, the United States appears to understand that Hezbollah must not be appeased and is therefore providing economic and military support to democratic forces within Lebanon...
...Increasingly, trade unions, student organizations, and women’s groups are openly expressing their opposition to the regime...
...Though calling this ambitious endeavor “the concentrated work of IThe Case for Freedom The Case for FreedomBY NATAN SHARANSKY AND RON DERMERBY NATAN SHARANSKY AND RON DERMER generations,” he boldly declared that his administration would “encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people...
...To most observers, what is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Palestinian-controlled areas, and elsewhere in the Middle East inspires little confidence that free societies in the region have a future...
...While America stayed largely on the sidelines, Iran and Syria spent hundreds of millions of dollars, supplied weapons, and sent in trained fighters in order to snuff out democracy in Lebanon...
...Not surprisingly, when America has rejected or ignored democracy, the results have been disastrous, and when it appears serious about advancing democratic reform, we have glimpsed the possibility of a genuinely transformed Middle East...
...As a result, the Soviets came under intense international pressure...
...To assume they will help America is to assume they would willingly sign their own death warrant...
...The Oslo peace process drew no link between freedom and peace...
...On the Lebanese side, over 600 Hezbollah terrorists were killed, as were many innocent Lebanese who were being used as human shields by terrorists embedded in civilian areas...
...Inevitably, these regimes also try to consolidate their control by uniting their subjects against a real or imagined enemy...
...We hope that in his remaining time in office, he will succeed in getting his administration to translate his rhetoric more effectively and consistently into policy...
...For only when liberty is on the march are all those who cherish it more secure...
...That is why Andrei Sakharov used to say that regimes that do not respect the rights of their own people will never respect the rights of their neighbors, and why such regimes threaten both their own subjects and the world...
...This threat, the logic went, could only be neutralized by promoting the very force—freedom—whose absence had generated the pathologies in the first place...
...HOWIE CARR, radio host and bestselling author of The Brothers Bulger Crown Forum MAY 2007 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 37...
...Indeed, what is happening in Iran today can be analogized to the Solidarity Movement in Poland...
...would thereby be endangered...
...Hopefully, men like Mr...
...So while the power of democratic leaders is largely a function of the degree of support they enjoy among their citizens, the power of non-democratic leaders is a function of the degree of control they exert over their subjects...
...What happened...
...But make no mistake about it...
...This essay is the eighth in a ten-part series being published in successive issues of The American Spectator under the general title, “The Pursuit of Liberty: Can the Ideals That Made America Great Provide a Model for the World...
...But Saddam was once considered a “friendly strongman,” and he murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, persecuted millions more, started two wars, and sponsored terror in the region...
...Many today believe that the collapse of the Soviet Union was inevitable because of its weak economy...
...If non-democratic regimes were put on notice, the president’s message to those they persecuted was even clearer: All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States government will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors...
...But what these policymakers ignore is that the Soviets saw détente as an opportunity to clamp down on dissent at home and expand their influence abroad...
...It was only when leaders like “Scoop” Jackson and Ronald Reagan reversed these efforts that the entire dynamic of the Cold War changed...
...In failing to forge that consensus, Bush has ceded the ground to democracy’s skeptics...
...Making America’s task exponentially more difficult are those inside and outside Iraq who are determined to see democracy fail, from the thousands of Baathist insurgents hoping to restore their former dominance to neighboring regimes trying to foment instability and chaos to an international terror movement that has declared war on what Musab al-Zarqawi called “this evil principle of democracy...
...Now it is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations...
Vol. 40 • May 2007 • No. 4
