http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/29_04_03_d.asp Now that the non-war in Iraq is over, the Bush administration is focusing on who will govern Iraq. The neo-conservatives such as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Vice-President Dick Cheney prefer an initial period of occupation (two years according to President George W. Bush himself) of post-war Iraq by US troops and civilians. This period would be followed by forcing on the people of Iraq the Iraq National Congress’ controversial and illegitimate leader the Pentagon’s darling Ahmed Chalabi. I wager that similar to what occurred in the early part of last century, Iraq will end up being ruled by a “user-friendly tyrant,” to use the serendipitous words of an Australian colleague. This is not surprising if one looks at the history of America’s bout with democracy in the world and the Middle East since World War II. From the early 1950s onward, and under the guise of a national security doctrine, America’s favorite rulers included such unsavory leaders as Somoza in Nicaragua, Noriega in Panama, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, the various military regimes in the Southern Cone of the American continent exemplified by US support of the overthrow and assassination of the elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, and his replacement by Augusto Pinochet, one of the nastiest dictatorships and a major violator of human rights. The same also applied to Brazil, and Argentina until the advent of the Clinton administration that encouraged and fostered democratic regimes in Latin America. Today, most of these governments are confronting social and economic upheavals as a result of globalization, Venezuela being the tip of the iceberg. In Asia, we have the succeeding US administrations supporting and abetting bloody dictatorships such as Marcos in the Philippines and the Suharto regime in Indonesia. In Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, the US encouraged the advent of democracies with different levels of success. For instance, Russia is today ruled by a semi-autocratic regime headed by Vladimir Putin hardly a typical Jeffersonian democrat! Things get worse in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia where some rulers have a record that is comparable to that of Saddam Hussein’s. The only bright spot is in Central Europe in countries such as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Their experiment in democracy is mixed but vibrant and viable. These three countries have had a historic experiment with democratic rule and enjoy the presence of an active civil society. In the Middle East, the US record in promoting democracy is dismal. A case in point is the CIA-supported overthrow of the popularly elected Mossadeq government in Iran in the early 1950s. Mossadeq was replaced by Reza Pahlavi as shah of Iran, who for almost twenty years plundered the resources of his country to satisfy the interests and profits of US oil companies and weapons manufacturers. Ironically, this is the same military-industrial complex which is now descending like hungry vultures on Mesopotamia: Halliburton, Bechtel, Lockheed, etc. Then we have Israel “the only democracy in the Middle East,” as has been bandied around by the Israeli government and its friends in the West. Israel is a pseudo-democracy that still has no constitution and that has not yet worked out whether it is a state for the Jews or a state for all its citizens without distinction of race, sex, or ethnic and religious backgrounds. This is a state where the Law of Return allows any Jew around the world to come and settle on occupied lands while the native Palestinian population cannot even claim its right of return. Yes, Arab citizens of Israel enjoy some freedoms and do have access to the Israeli social welfare system, but they still face huge discrimination. Then, we have the horrible and illegal occupation of Palestinian territories including Jerusalem. If Israel, a close ally of the US, is the only country enjoying democracy in the Middle East then why isn’t it used as a model and an example by its friends in Washington who are legion? This is an important question that comes to mind when we consider who are the characters that today are advocating a democratic tsunami in Iraq and the Middle East: Daniel Pipes, Amos Perlmutter, Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Douglas Feith. Kanan Makiya, and Ahmed Chalabi among others. This is why I believe that the hollow talk we are hearing from Washington and we will be hearing until the departure of the last US soldier from Iraq is just that: hollow, senseless talk. My Australian friend was right: In a few years from now, we will have a user-friendly tyrant in Baghdad and Bush could still be in the White House but this time elected. Who knows? Democratie oblige! One of the bestsellers in Washington bookstores is the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These hallowed and admirable documents ought to be required reading in the White House. George E. Irani is a professor at Royal Roads University. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star |