About the shape of Arab opinions.
From a Washington Post article, Listen To Arab Voices :
Listen To Arab Voices [/] By Marina Ottaway [/] Tuesday, April 5, 2005; Page A23Very interesting. Particularly since the efforts of the Bush administration to promote democracy in the Middle East have been characterized as ignorant and unnuanced by our cultural elites, including, I expect,the Washington Post and the writer.The third Arab Human Development Report, finally released by the U.N. Development Program after a lengthy controversy, should be required reading for Bush administration officials and for anyone interested in promoting Middle East democracy. The report reveals a complete acceptance of democratic principles and a complete mistrust of the Bush administration's efforts to promote democracy. This mixed message is at the heart of the conundrum the United States faces in pursuing a policy of political change in the Mideast. [my emphasis]
The report, authored by a group of prominent Arab intellectuals (many of whom embraced Arab nationalism and Arab socialism in the past), represents an unambiguous embrace of liberal democratic ideals. There are no "buts" and "ifs" in the report, no claim that Arab countries need to develop their own form of democracy in keeping with the cultural specificity and conditions of the region. There is no claim that each country must be allowed to proceed toward democracy at its own pace and in its own time, or that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict must be settled first. On the contrary, the report addresses and rebuts all such claims, concluding instead that liberal democratic values are not Western but universal, and that change must come now. [my emphasis]
This part of the report will be music to the Bush administration's ears, but it will be soured by the strident anti-Americanism of other sections. The report is critical of U.S. policies, denouncing the occupation of Iraq and the unstinting support for Israel as setbacks for Arab human development. Furthermore, the report exudes mistrust and hostility toward the Bush administration, doubting the sincerity of its commitment to democratization in the Arab world. [my emphasis] [ … ]How much of the “mistrust and hostility toward the Bush administration” is a mere reflection of the greater mistrust and hostility bordering on hatred that is found in the elites of the United States: academia, the mainstream media (including the Washington Post), the foundations (including the writer’s affiliation), etc.
It is important that the Bush administration recognize this reluctant admission that something good could come from U.S. policy as a real change on the part of Arab reformers, and that it not jeopardize chances for cooperation by attacking the report and punishing the U.N. Development Program for allowing its publication. [my emphasis] [ … ] [/] The writer is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.The reluctance of the authors of the U. N. report to admit that anything good has come from the Bush administration is probably a bit less than the reluctance of the publisher and author of this article to propagate the admission.
