We regret that we have to actually make the argument that support for democracy needs to be the touchstone of U.S. foreign policy, but it seems appropriate after a week in which the Bush Administration:
- appeared to countenance a military coup against a democratically elected government in Venezuela, and
- undertook a barren Middle Eastern trip by the Secretary of State that underscored a continuing obsession with placating "moderate" Arab regimes under the illusion that they constitute pillars of stability in a turbulent region.
In both cases, the Administration is exhibiting the old Cold War conservative "realpolitik" habit of subordinating our long-range interest in promoting political and economic freedom to the narrowest possible understanding of our immediate interests. Just as many conservatives were happy to support any right-wing dictatorship in the Cold War so long as it was anti-communist, the Administration now seems willing to support any Venezuelan regime that might offer lower oil prices, and to make our Middle East policy strictly dependent on avoiding any friction with regimes that are willing to call themselves our friends.
One of the great global achievements of the 1990s was the emergence of the Americas as a region in which -- with the sole and temporary exception of Cuba -- every country had a stable, democratic government. We do not like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez much more than the Administration does, but he was democratically elected. When the results of his bankrupt economic policies and buffoonish foreign policies become apparent, he will almost certainly be democratically removed from office and sent off to spend his declining years on what's left of the international Marxist speaking tour. It appears the Administration's decision to make the United States the one country welcoming the coup against Chavez was motivated by its potential effect on short-term oil prices -- almost a parody of the old anti-American stereotype that we favor democracy only when it serves our narrowest economic interests, in this case cheap gasoline for American S.U.V.'s.
Meanwhile, the continued silence of the Administration about the absence of democracy in the Middle East (other than in Israel) is becoming an increasingly disturbing omission in the President's otherwise sweeping and moralistic rhetoric about the fight against terrorism.
U.S. policymakers need to understand that the "moderate" Arab states' lack of popular legitimacy -- based on an absence of political and economic freedom, and an unwillingness to respect basic human rights -- will inevitably drive them towards support for the anti-Western cause of the radical Islamists, if only to deflect blame for the failings of their own regimes. That's why their "friendliness" to the United States and their commitment to the fight against terrorism is so limited -- limited, in fact, to a coalition against an Al Qaeda network that threatens their own rule.
During the last few weeks, Saudi Arabia, for example, has not only publicly and repeatedly defended the use of terrorism by the Palestinians against Israeli civilians, but has embraced Saddam Hussein's Iraq, even suggesting that all Arab nations come to the aid of the genocidal maniac should the United States seek to topple him. Meanwhile, the Saudis continue to lavishly finance a global network of Wahabbi Islamic schools and other institutions that serve as the primary breeding ground for Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist networks. Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, whose dictatorial regime subsists in part on massive U.S. economic aid, has also lent support to Palestinian terrorism, while continuing to encourage state-controlled media to indulge in the worst kind of anti-Semitic and anti-Western propaganda. Last week Mubarak refused to even meet with Colin Powell.
If the Bush Administration has said a word publicly or privately about any of these outrages, or the double game that Arab regimes continue to play, we haven't heard about it.
As Senator Joe Lieberman has eloquently said, we must understand that the broader war against terrorism is against those forces in the Middle East that prefer anti-Western jihad to the adoption of Western-style principles of political democracy, economic liberty, and tolerance of other beliefs and cultures. If we do not succeed in enlisting the people of the Islamic Middle East -- and their governments -- in this broader war, then whatever success we have in tracking down Osama bin Laden and his associates will ultimately prove fruitless.
Whether it's about Latin America or the Middle East, the word "democracy" needs to appear much more often in the rhetoric and the policies of the Bush Administration. Applauding coups and placating tyrants is not only inconsistent with our values, but with our real interests around the world.
Blueprint Keywords: Extra Iraq
