Democratically Shooting Yourself in the Foot
The US has insisted that bringing democracy to Iraq would bring stability to Iraq. Iraq today is more unstable and more dangerous than ever. Its government is a collection of quarreling parties and the strongest force are the Iranian allied Shiite leaders.
The US strongly insisted that Egypt democratize more and open up its electoral process. The neo-cons assured us that this would reduce support for 'islamic extremists.' Now in Egypt's elections, the Muslim Brotherhood which is the originating body for Hamas and many Muslim terrorist groups and the inspiration for Al Queda, has doubled its representation. The Muslim Brotherhood now has 30 seats to Mubarak's party's 50. Thanks to the US, the spirtual guides of Hamas are drawing closer to coming to power in Egypt.
The US has insisted on Hamas participating in Palestinian elections. Diplomats, Neo-cons and Secretary of State Rice has assured us that this will promote democracy and reduce extremism. Instead the participation of Hamas in elections has resulted in increasing conflict and terrorism as Hamas and the PA's terrorists try to win a popularity contest fought with terrorist attacks against Israel.
Conservative liberals of the Clinton and Bush variety have continually insisted that democracy is the cure for all ills. Democracy though is merely a way of opening up the process, for good or ill. In a stable country with a population that doesn't support genocide or terrorism or religious extremism, democratization is a good thing. In the middle east it is a disaster and Islamic terrorist parties like Hamas and Hizbullah, like the Nazis, are extremely adept at exploiting the weakness of democracy by gaining office, taking power and then eliminating the democracy.
The faith in democracy is a delusional belief based not on rational political analysis but ideology and wishful thinking. Democracy will not stop Islamic terrorism, only the courage to resist and fight terrorism will.