US Democra-pocricy – In the News
“US foreign policy has nothing to do with ideology, as it only cares about the kind of democracy it wants. The US wants to impose a “designed and tamed democracy” in the Arab region, so as to protect its own interests.”
This is an article from an online service called the “Gulf News” which is basically an opinion section blatantly attacking the motives behind US foreign policy. Its builds off my post on democratization nicely, in that it states that the US only has an interest in a certain version of democracy in the middle east, one that it can tame and control. At the end of the day, the US efforts abroad are to further its own influence. Democracy just happens to work well because it is morally defensible and easily influenced by US interests. The article uses one example in particular with great effectiveness to prove its thesis. If the US had a legitimate interest in democracy for its own sake then its behavior regarding HAMAS would have been different. When HAMAS won the elections in Palestine, the US refused to recognize them as legitimate, saying that is a “terrorist organization”. But they also say, “the September 11 attacks would not have happened if there was democracy in Arab countries” Hmmm… doesn’t seem to make logical sense. The article also goes on to critisize the US involvement in setting up various dictatorships in Latin and South America. I talked about Iran in my own editorial bashing of US foreign policy.
If you think American foreign policy is about a humanitarian effort to bring freedom and democracy to the people of the world then you need to stop watching Fox News, abandon your ‘White Man’s Burden’ philosophies, pick up a history book and a newspaper (not owned by Murdoch), and see what is really going on. Ignorance might be bliss for you, but it sure isn’t for Iraqis.