Bringing Democracy

Stardate 6347.66

I have added a link on my blogroll to an interesting site written by an American Muslim fellow and something in a post there caught my eye.

Not Yet Democracy

Booman Tribune argues that putting off democracy until a few other concerns are addressed is the way to go.

This is not inconsistent with my suggestion that the primary focus of center left democracy promotion needs to be on the ground with people and not in the diplomat’s conference room.

This is where US foreign policy goes all wrong. They put a puppet government in power, one that is obviously favorable to whatever goals they have in the region, and after that, they attempt to win the hearts and minds of the people. However, the people, as a general rule, have much closer ties to the former regimes, benign or not, historically speaking. Local warlords vie for power while the puppet regime sits powerless, feeding off of whatever scraps of arms and manpower the US gives them...

In other words, politics trumps popularity every time it seems.