----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Mensah" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 7:41 PM
Subject: [unioNews] Democracy and diplomacy


<H3>Democracy and diplomacy</H3>
Monday, November 10, 2003

Addressing the National Endowment for Democracy last week, President
George W. Bush sought to look beyond the current bloody chaos in
Iraq. Successfully implanting a democratic government in Iraq, he
predicted, would energize a democratic revolution that would sweep
away tyrannies from Cuba to North Korea. Specifically, Bush
proclaimed a new "forward strategy" for advancing freedom in the
Middle East, rightly declaring that 60 years of excusing and
accommodating dictatorships there "did nothing to make us safe"
because stability cannot be purchased at liberty's expense.

Bush spoke well. He is right that Washington has failed to support
abroad the values Americans live by at home. Too often, putting
realpolitik ahead of freedom has backfired, causing anti-American
rage. Bush is not the first president to promise to put democracy at
the forefront of American policy. We hope he does a better job
delivering on his promises than some of his predecessors.

Unfortunately, his biggest experiment in democracy promotion has been
in Iraq, and he has not been going about it in the most promising
ways. As Iraqis are showing, even a terrorized population does not
much enjoy foreign invasion and occupation. Nor does it help that
Washington is running the show itself, keeping the United Nations and
Iraqis mainly on the sidelines.

The president's warning of the futility of excusing dictatorship in
the name of security seems custom-made for Saudi Arabia, the original
home of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001.
Promoting democracy there must become an urgent U.S. priority.
Washington should give itself more leverage for doing so by
decreasing U.S. dependence on imported oil. The United States should
also encourage the work of democracy campaigners in Egypt, Syria and
Iran, providing them with educational and legal resources where
appropriate and documenting and denouncing the crimes of dictatorial
governments.

Another country where America relies too much on a dictator for
security is Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country that harbors Kashmiri
terrorists and lets Taliban military recruiters operate near its
border with Afghanistan. President Pervez Musharraf's timely support
for Washington in Afghanistan two years ago should not permanently
immunize his dictatorship from needed criticism.

It is not surprising that Bush's speech paid homage to President
Ronald Reagan and his 1980's invocations of freedom's unstoppable
momentum against a failed Soviet communism. Bush should remember what
Reagan well understood: America's most effective cold war weapon was
the power of its democratic ideas. The Reagan administration's
support for democratic opposition movements across Central and
Eastern Europe played a crucial role in hastening the Soviet empire's
collapse. Washington's willingness to outspend Moscow on arms and
maintain strong NATO defenses also helped. But there is a big
difference between defending existing democracies and trying to
create new ones through invasion and occupation.

America, with its reverence for law and freedom and its awesome
economic power and cultural influence, is well equipped to help
democrats elsewhere. To succeed in this vitally important endeavor,
the Bush administration will have to learn to put the same kind of
energy and resources into the diplomatic and educational sides of
foreign policy as it has devoted to unilateral military action.

 Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune






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